Universe Collision 2: Reign of Shadows
by cyberkiller125
Summary: In this Sequel, The Heroes reunite to find 5 artifacts to combat a new threat that's taking over their universes known as the King of Shadows. COMPLETE
1. Prologue

**Author's Note:** _Well, Well, Well, Look who's back. For the last few months I've written the first few chapters of this story, so I can get the stories out more efficiently, so hopefully there will be a smoother release schedule for this story. Also if you haven't read the first story go read it now because i'm not going to recap it for you._

 _Anyway let's begin_

* * *

Chapter 1. Prologue.

The Wasteland.

It's a harsh desert where the only things that can live out there are Bandit's and various metalheads.

Right now two bandits were waiting outside their settlement for someone.

"He should have finished his scouting run by now." Bandit 1 said.

"I agree." Bandit 2 said. "The scout is 10 minutes past his expected return."

"I'll tell you what." Bandit 1 said turning to Bandit 2. "If he isn't back in 5 minutes we'll just go back in our base and tell our leader that the scout died."

"Yes." Bandit 2 said. "The scouts are expendable anyway, we can always replace them."

Just then a vehicle came up and stopped, nearly running them over.

Just then a person dressed like the two bandits came out.

"Finally!" Bandit 1 said crossing his. "Do you have any idea how late you are."

"Sir I…" The scout began to say before getting interrupted.

"You are 10 minutes late for when you are supposed to arrive." Bandit 1 continued. "and on top of that you nearly killed us when stopping your vehicle."

"I'm sorry sir." The scout said with his head down. "But I have to tell you…"

"I'm not finished talking to you yet!"

Before Bandit 1 could continue to scold the scout Bandit 2 stepped in.

"Lay off him Sergeant." Bandit 2 said. "He obviously wants to talk about something, let's hear him out."

The Sergeant stared at The Bandit for 5 seconds thinking about what he just said.

He then turned back to the scout. "I'll scold you later, but right now you obviously want to talk about something, and it better not be another one of your tall tales.

The scout nodded. "Well I was on my way back to report on my scouting mission when suddenly my one of my wheels got stuck in the sand."

"Is that why you were late?" The Sergeant asked. "One of your wheels got stuck?"

"I'm not finished yet." The Scout snapped before continuing his story. "When I pushed my vehicle out of the sand, I discovered that there was a hole where the wheel got stuck. Only the hole was deep."

"I see." The Bandit said. "Go on."

"When I peeked through the hole, I saw a room that was lit with torches and in the middle was some black gem."

With that the scout finished the story.

The Sergeant and the Bandit stared at him for about a minute

"So you're saying you may have discovered a temple under the sand." The Sergeant finally.

"That's exactly what i'm saying." The Scout said nodding his head.

"We'll I don't believe a word of it. I'm not going to believe your story about finding a temple until I see it for myself."

"I can take you to it."

"No offense but how are we going to find this so called temple you found." The Bandit said.

"And didn't you leave with another person in your vehicle." The Sergeant added. "Where is he now?"

"He's at where I found the temple." The scout explained. "He said he would stay behind so I and anyone who came with me can find it easily."

"Well then let's go find him, and the "temple" You found." The Sergeant said before turning to The Bandit. "Get me a vehicles so I could dive there, you'll ride with the scout."

"Yes sir." The Bandit said as he ran back to the settlement.

After a few minutes he came back with a vehicles, and once The Sergeant got in they drove off to where the scout found the temple.

None of them however paid any attention to a small flying robot that was watching them.

* * *

Somewhere in space, a man was watching the three bandits drive off to the temple the scout found.

The man was old, with a dark beard, and grey eyes. He was wearing a black trench coat, and a black fedora on his head.

Just then the radio next to him rang.

He picked it up and spoke into it.

"This is The Chessmaster." he said.

"Sir they've found out about the temple." the voice on the other end said.

"I know that." The Chessmaster said. "Have you taken your position?"

"Yes, the poor scout didn't see it coming."

"Good, now remember, do not betray them until they are in the temple with you."

"Roger that." the voice said before hanging up.

The Chessmaster then stared out into the darkness of space.

It had been 8 months since he had hired a group of villains to release the universe eater, the plan obviously failed, but for him it didn't matter, it was just a building block in a plan of his own, the villains were just pawns to him.

He then looked at a chessboard, the white side of the chessboard still had all it's pieces on the board, while the black side had some pieces removed.

He then smiled, it was time to add a new player to the game.

He pulled out a black chess piece and put it on the board.

* * *

Meanwhile, back in the wasteland the bandits had arrived at where the scout found the temple.

They found the second scout waiting for them.

"About time." Scout 2 said. "I thought I was going to be left buried in the sand.

"Look, the scout you were with said that he found a temple. Can you please show us where it is." The Sergeant said.

Scout 2 showed them the hole, and the four looked inside.

"Well it looks like you weren't making it up all along." The bandit said looking into the hole.

"We're going to have to go down there to get a better look." The Sergeant said.

He then turned to the first scout. "Do you have any rope with you?"

"Yes I do." Scout 1 said going back to his vehicle to get rope, as well as something to hold the rope.

Once the scout got it, he set up the rope above the hole.

"Okay let's go down and find out what's down there."

With that the four descended down into the temple.

Once they landed they started looking around.

"How is it that we have never discovered this place after all this time?" The Sergeant asked.

"Maybe we've passed it but never thought of it." The Bandit said.

Then their eyes fell on the black gem.

"Wonder what this is?" The Sergeant said approaching it.

"I don't know sir." Scout 1 said. "Let me look at it."

As Scout 1 began looking at the crystal, Scout 2, noticing the bandit's and sergeants back was turned, pulled out a gun, and pointed it at them.

"Don't move." He said.

The Sergeant turned his head and saw that the second scout had a gun pointed at him.

"What is this?" He asked the second scout in an angry tone.

"You see this temple has something important in it that can release something and my employer wants to use it."

"Who is your employer?" The bandit asked.

"His name is not important right now." Scout 2 said casually. "What's important is that crystal there."

He pointed to the black crystal

"What's going on back there?" The Scout said, turning to see what was going on.

He saw his two companions being held hostage by the scout he left behind.

"Why you…" The scout began as he reached for his gun.

"Ah ah ah." Scout 2 said pointing his gun at the Sergeant. "You wouldn't you're sergeant dead, would you?"

"What do you want me to do?" The Scout asked, pulling his hand away from the gun.

"I want you to read what it says on the black crystal. And I suggest that you do it now."

He then pointed his gun at the scout. "or else."

Reluctantly The Scout complied.

As he began reading the inscription, The Bandit looked around the temple.

Suddenly he recognized the place.

"You are a fool." The Bandit hushed to Scout 2. "Do you know the thing this temple worships?"

"Of course." Scout 2 said.

"Then why are you releasing it?"

"It's all part of my master's plan."

Just then the scout finished the chanting, and the crystal began to glow a light grey color.

Then the glow became a beam of light pointing upwards even piercing the temple roof.

Not soon after the whole temple began to shake, and all the torches went out.

"What have you done?" The Bandit asked the scout.

"I just did what the guy told." The scout said.

In the confusion the Sergeant turned around and quickly grabbed the gun Scout 2 was holding. He then pushed him and shot him in the shoulder.

Almost instantly Scout 2's form shimmered and vanished revealing a man in a black suit, and a black mask.

"Why you." The Agent said clenching his shoulder.

"You are going to tell my who sent you or else I will shoot you again." The Sergeant said pointing the gun at the agent.

"I'll never tell you." The agent spat out.

"Then tell us what was just summoned."

Just then the bandit noticed something.

"Uh, Sergeant, were those people here when we entered the temple." he asked pointing at the wall.

All of them looked at where the bandit was pointing and there were indeed people, however they could only see their white eyes.

"What the heck are those things?" The Scout said.

"Who cares what they are." The Bandit said pulling his rifle out. "Just shoot them."

Instantly all but the scout began shooting the creatures.

But no matter how many they shot, there was just too many.

The scout then noticed something next to the crystal. It was a something wrapped in a white cloth.

Curious he picked it up, and looked at it, because it was now too dark to see in the temple, he decided to get back to the surface to get a better look.

At the same time the three who were shooting were losing the battle.

The Agent got on his radio. "Chessmaster, I need teleportation out of here, Now."

"I'm afraid I can't do that." The Chessmaster said on the other end. "You've played your part, and now I have no more need for you."

"Why you…" The Agent said before being cut off.

The scout watched as the three became slowly overwhelmed by the unknown force.

Knowing that there was no hope of winning he put the mysterious object in his backpack, and began to ascend to the surface.

The Sergeant however, noticed the scout going up the rope.

"HEY, WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!" He yelled.

The Scout didn't respond, all he was focused on was getting out of here.

"GET BACK DOWN HERE AND HELP US!"

The Scout ignored the cries as he reached the surface.

He watched as down the hole as his companions got overwhelmed. He could clearly see the people in the temple now, they were completely black except for their eyes and the inside of their mouths.

Knowing he could not let them escape he began to untie the rope.

The Sergeant saw him untying the rope.

"He's leaving us to die here." The Sergeant said glumly as The Scout began untying the last few knots.

Knowing their fate The bandit and the agent stopped firing.

Once the final knot was untied the rope fell into the temple.

The Scout watched as they were overcome by the creature.

He then ran away, and got out the mysterious object he had found.

He unwrapped the cloth that was around the object and observed it.

It was shaped like a star with some language on it that was similar to the one on the crystal.

However as soon as he made eye contact with it, there was only one thought that ran through his head.

I must warn him.

He didn't know the person of who to warn but he somehow knew that he will know it when he found him.

I must warn him.

He then began to walk across the desert, only thinking and muttering one thing.

"I must warn him, I must warn him, I must warn him."

* * *

Somewhere in space the grey light reached it's destination. a black meteor, almost blending in with the emptiness of space.

The Rock shattered revealing a figure, who was completely encased in shadow. He opened his eyes which were red.

"AFTER BILLIONS OF YEARS!" The figure said in a booming voice. "I HAVE REAWAKENED, NOW ALL OF REALITY IS MINE!"

The figure then vanished leaving only the darkness of space.

* * *

 **Authors Note:** _That was the first chapter, as well as our first look at the main villain of the story. I will reveal his name later in the story._

 _Next chapter we'll see what our heroes have been up too._


	2. Months After the Adventure

**Author's Note:** _Okay now this is going to sound a bit complicated so listen up. Remember when I said that Reign of Shadows takes place 8 months after Universe Collision, yeah I sort of lied about that._

 _You see the timeframes of the universes are different, In Sonic's universe, 8 months have passed, but in Ratchet's universe 4 months have passed, For Calvin as you'll read below, 2 months have passed, and for Jak, 6 months have passed._

 _Okay enough with the lesson in time zones, let's start the Chapter._

* * *

Chapter 2. Months After The Adventure.

Inside of a school, Calvin was staring at the clock as Miss Wormwood lectured on about something. He was anxious to get out, seeing as it was Friday, Miss Wormwood was expected to give them back their stories on what they did during the summer.

Calvin had written about his adventure in defeating the universe eater, which had happened two months ago, yet to him, it seemed like a long time ago.

Finally the bell rang.

"Alright class." Miss Wormwood said. "For your assignment, you'll have to write a report on Christopher Columbus. It is due Monday. As for your stories of what you did during the summer, i'll give them back to you on the way out."

Calvin was about to leave when Miss Wormwood called him.

"Calvin, can I talk to you for a moment?"

Calvin groaned as he walked to Miss Wormwood's desk.

"What do you want now Miss Wormwood?" Calvin asked in a annoyed tone.

She handed him a paper "Here is what you wrote for your summer story, I recommend using less fiction and more facts next time."

Calvin looked at the grade on his paper.

It was a D minus.

Outside of the school, a shout was heard.

"WHAT!?"

On the bus Calvin was looking over his story, and complaining about the grade he got.

"Use less fiction and more facts next time." Calvin grumbled as he read it over. "I did use facts. I was there."

"Well to be fair, the idea of you going to different universes, and allying yourself with other heroes you met did sound ridiculous." Susie said.

"NO ONE ASKED FOR YOUR OPINION SUSIE!" Calvin yelled.

Susie rolled her eyes and began writing her report for school.

After a while the bus arrived at Calvin's house.

Calvin got out of the bus and walked to the front door.

"I'M HOME." Calvin yelled as he opened the door.

POW!

Almost instantly Calvin was knocked back from the door, and hit the yard with a tiger on top of him.

"Woo-Hoo." Hobbes said. "After all that waiting, I finally got to stretch some of those muscles

"Hobbes, get off of me." Calvin said in a angry tone. "I'm not exactly in the mood today."

"Sorry." Hobbes said with an innocent smile on his face. Ignoring the glare Calvin was giving him.

The two began to walk back to the house as Calvin explained what happened.

"So I'd take it that Miss Wormwood, and the school didn't buy the story." Hobbes said.

"Yep." Calvin said as he cleaned himself up.

"That figures. You'd think they'd caught on after you told them how we stopped ghost animals from taking over the world."

"I don't think they'll ever catch on. We live in the most unobservant town is the world."

They eventually went into Calvin's room and upon entry, The MTM activated.

"I sense some anger in you Calvin." The MTM said. "I'd take it Ms Wormwood didn't buy into your story."

"Nope, she didn't buy it." Calvin said as he sat down at his desk, reading his story again. "and to add insult to injury, Miss Wormwood gave me a D minus, and told me to use "Less Fiction and More Facts" next time."

"Why that woman." The MTM said sounding cross. "One day, i'm going to try to teach her the difference between Fact and Fiction."

"How do you intend to do that?" Hobbes asked.

"Well I'm going to teleport to her home and show her my logs of you doing those previous adventures you gave to her."

"Nah, she still wouldn't be convinced." Calvin said.

He then stood up. "Well, it's Friday, let's check out Brown's General Store to see if there's anything good there."

"Aren't you forgetting a few people." Hobbes asked.

"Oh right." Calvin said as grabbed the MTM. "MTM can you bring our good friends, Andy, Sherman, and Socrates to us?"

"Certainly." The MTM said.

After a few seconds there was a sound.

BZAP.

There was a flash of light and Andy, Sherman and Socrates appeared. Socrates appears to be in a lying down position, and Sherman seemed to be about to press a button.

"Hey." Sherman yelled. "I was close to figuring out the secret of suspended animation."

"Really? Calvin said.

"Nah, he was just about to figure out how to power the new machine he invented." Andy said.

"It was part of the machine for my suspended animation experiment." Sherman said defensively.

"Who were you planning it for?" Calvin asked.

"He was planning on using it on me." Socrates said clearly quite annoyed. "He said it was only going to be for day. But I saw him set it for 100 years.

"A shame we only teleported you right now." Calvin remarked. "Otherwise Socrates wouldn't have been a problem anymore."

"Very Funny."

Socrates then went back to his cheerful personality. "Say Calvin, may I shake your hand?"

Calvin looked at him in suspicion. "You're not wearing those hand buzzers are you?" Calvin asked.

"Certainly not." Socrates said in a almost offended tone. "I would not stoop to that low."

Calvin thought about it for a moment and then said. "Fine."

As soon as Calvin touched Socrates hand, a buzz went through him, and Calvin was slightly shocked.

When he looked up, Socrates was laughing at him.

"I couldn't believe you fell for that." he said.

"Well you're not gonna fall for this." Calvin said bringing his fist's up.

"Ahem." The MTM said just as Calvin was about to hit Socrates. "I recall you teleported Andy, Sherman, and Socrates here to go to brown's general store, not pick a fight with Socrates.

"Fine." Calvin said as he lowered his fists before glaring at Socrates. "But i'm going to get you for this someday."

As the group walked to browns general store, Calvin and Hobbes thought about if their friends in the other universes were doing well.

* * *

On a workbench, there was a grey cylinder object, and next to it was another cylinder, but this one having a blue glowing light.

Ratchet stood staring at it for a bit, as if he was thinking on how to do this.

He then grabbed a wrench and began to turn a bolt on an. He was repairing the inter-universal warp drive he got from their last adventure.

You see, while they were traveling back to their home universe after the celebration on Anakor, they heard a noise that sounded like a tea kettle whistle combined with a loud cough.

When they arrived home, they found out that the warp drive had a overheating problem. So Ratchet had spent the next few months trying to fix it.

His latest attempt was installing a cooling system on the engine, and right now he was putting the last few bolts on it.

Once he was done he picked it up, and began to carry it to the aphelion. It was heavy so he had a bit of trouble lifting it up.

Outside, Clank was sitting down reading a book.

He was finish a chapter when he heard some grunts.

Looking up, he saw Ratchet carrying the warp drive.

"I see you're trying a new solution to the overheating problem." Clank said as Ratchet began putting the drive in the aphelion.

"Yeah." Ratchet said, connecting the wires and cables to the drive. "Hopefully this will work."

Once he was finished with that, Ratchet then got in the aphelion.

"I suppose it's time for a test flight." Clank said getting up, and going to a panel with a button on it marked **EMERGENCY TELEPORT.**

"Okay you know the drill." Ratchet said as he made preparations.

Clank nodded. "I'll teleport you and the aphelion back if the warp drive begins to malfunction."

"Glad we've done this so many times you know what to do."

The aphelion finally took off, and Clank watched as Ratchet went into space.

"Okay i'm in space now." Ratchet said to Clank over the radio. "I'm going to test the drive in a few seconds. Be prepared to teleport me back if anything goes wrong."

For the next few minutes, Clank didn't have much to do. So he went back to reading his book.

A few minutes later he heard something from the radio. Assuming it was Ratchet telling him to teleport him back, went over to it.

However, instead of Ratchet he heard static.

He was about to put it down when suddenly a voice came through that definitely wasn't Ratchet's

" **I HAVE REAWAKENED, YOUR UNIVERSE WILL SOON BE MINE!"**

Clank dropped the radio in surprise.

After about a minute he grabbed the radio again, but heard static once again.

Clank then put the radio down and went back to reading his book. However, he couldn't focus on it as he kept looking at the radio every few seconds. As if the voice was going to come back through the radio.

Trying to take his mind off of it, he thought about what Sonic was doing at the moment.

* * *

In the Green Hill Zone, an army of robots were walking, looking around, as well as dragging a metal canister.

Just then a bird landed on a tree.

Suddenly, all of the robots stopped and one of them turned towards the bird.

The robot's arm then extended itself and grabbed the bird. Putting it in the canister.

The robots then continued to walk. Until they suddenly stopped.

Standing in front of them was a blue hedgehog, known to many as Sonic the Hedgehog.

Knowing their programing, which was capture animals for robotization, and eliminate any resistance, Drew their weapons and aimed at the hedgehog.

However just as they fired Sonic charged at them

The first three rows of robots were quickly taken down.

The Robots tried to fire at the threat, but they were quickly taken down.

Eventually all of the robots were reduced to piles of metal.

Sonic then went over the capsule and knocked it over, releasing all of the animals.

As Sonic walked away from the now empty capsule. Tails came running up next to him.

"I have to say Sonic." Tails said as the two walked. "You took down those robots rather quickly."

"Well, considering that this is the most action we've had in months. I'm just glad to finally do something." Sonic said.

Tails nodded. 8 months ago, their nemesis Eggman tried to awaken a creature known as the Universe Eater, and he failed. After that he got captured by an organization nor Sonic, or anyone else had heard off.

Since then, Sonic, Tails, and Amy had nothing to do.

That is until Tails reported an army of robots were capturing animals, and Sonic had leaped right into action.

"Still, I'm wondering now of all time's that we're seeing robots again." Tails said. "You don't suppose…"

"Look, we all saw Eggman get handcuffed and taken in a van." Sonic interrupted. "We haven't really heard anything from him since. These Robot's must have had some sort of programing that Eggman programed into him before he was captured."

"That could be a possibility." Tails said. "Just wondering if anyone else in the other universes have had some action recently."

Sonic, thought about it. They hadn't heard anything from the heroes in the other universes for almost 8 months, which was understandable. They had no way of contacting each other in the other universes.

But he wondered what the others were up to.

* * *

Somewhere is the wasteland Jak was setting up a plasmite bomb on a cave entrance.

The cave entrance was suspected to be a metalhead lair, and when he and Daxter watched it for a few days, they confirmed the suspicions and were ordered to block the cave enterence.

Right now, Jak was setting up the bombs, while Daxter was in the vehicle waiting for Jak to finish setting the bomb.

And Daxter was getting impatient.

"Come on Jak, can you at least let me set up a couple of bombs." Daxter said as he watched Jak place the bombs. "We'd at least get the job done quicker."

"As I remember, the last time you handled these things, you accidentally set all of them off." Jak said as he placed the next bomb on top of the cave.

"Look, we managed to get rid of them before they blew up." Daxter said. "And we have a detonator now, so I can handle them safely.

"But if you handle the bombs wrong, they can still activate." Jak said before reaching out with his free hand. "Toss me the last bomb please."

Daxter got the box containing the plasmid bombs and tossed Jak the last bomb.

Jak managed to catch the bomb and just as he was about to place the final bomb, the ground began to shake.

The sudden tremor caused Jak to fall off the top of cave, and landed on the ground. The bomb fell as well, activating when it hit the ground.

Daxter, concerned at his friend's well being, got out of the vehicle and ran up to him.

"Jak, are you okay?" Daxter asked as Jak slowly got up.

"Yeah, I'm okay." Jak muttered as he got on his feet. "Didn't expect an earthquake to happen."

"I didn't either, but we probably should go now."

"Why?"

Daxter pointed at the now beeping plasmite bomb. Jak looked at The bomb and realized what Daxter meant

"Oh."

The two then ran to the vehicle and drove away just before the plasmite bomb blew up, blowing up the rest of the bombs with it.

Jak stopped the vehicle and he and Daxter watched the now caved in entrance to the metalhead nest.

"Well that was a bit easier than expected." Daxter said. "Didn't expect that earthquake though."

"I don't really understand that though." Jak said. "Earthquakes don't really happen here, it's usually sandstorms.

"It's probably a new occurrence, along with that pillar of grey light." Daxter said pointing somewhere.

"What pillar of grey light?"

Jak looked and noticed a grey pillar of light, going straight up to the sky.

"Okay, That is even more unusual."

"Why don't we go check it out." Daxter said.

"Sure, why not." Jak said as he started the vehicle back up again.

The two then drove towards the grey light.

* * *

 **Authors Note:** _Sorry for the delay, got hit by a brutal case of writer's block._

 _So yeah, this chapter and the next chapter are going to be a bit slow, with the next chapter being short._

 _Hopefully_ _it won't take a month to write the next chapter._


	3. Discovery of A Star

**Author's Note:** _As I mentioned in the previous chapter this chapter is going to be pretty short. Though it will introduce our Macguffins for the story, and reveal the main villains name._

* * *

Chapter 3. Discovery of a Star.

Jak and Daxter had driven towards the grey pillar of light for about 30 minutes before the pillar of light disappeared.

"Well that didn't really accomplish anything." Daxter said as they stopped and looked at where the pillar was coming from.

"Let's just go back to Spargus." Jak said. "A sandstorm should be approaching very soon."

Daxter looked in the distance, and Jak was right, a cloud of sand was approaching pretty fast.

"Let's go home then."

Jak began to drive back towards Spargus.

They drove for about 10 minutes, when Daxter spotted something. A person walking across the desert.

"JAK WATCH OUT!"

Jak noticed the person, swerving and nearly hitting the person.

He stopped the vehicle, and when he looked at the person, he noticed the person had stopped.

"Come on Daxter." Jak said "Let's see who this person is and what he's doing out here."

He and Daxter got out of the vehicle and slowly approached the person.

The person turned out to be the scout from the first chapter. Still holding on to the object he found.

As well as muttering the same thing. "I must find him."

"Who are you trying to find?" Jak said as he approached him.

Upon hearing him the scout turned his head.

He looked worse than the last time he saw him. He had severe sunburn, but at the same time was almost pale, his face was almost covered with black veins, and his eyes were almost blank.

Jak was startled, who took a couple of steps back. Daxter on the other hand, fainted, and fell on the ground.

The scout approached him. "I found you." he said.

"Okay, who are you?" Jak said, a bit confused and freaked out at the same time.

"He has reawakened, and if he isn't stopped, he will take over this universe and the others beyond this one."

Jak continued to listen to him, approaching him more slowly this time.

The scout continued rambling "When the sky turns black, that is a sign that his armies have arrived."

"Who are you talking about?" Jak finally asked.

"Tenebris, The King of Shadows." The scout said, and when he said that, the black veins began to grow across his face, and his eyes got foggier.

"He will command his armies, he will not stop until everything is under his control."

He then presented the object he held in his hands. "This is only one of the objects that can stop him. The others must be found."

Reluctantly, Jak took the object.

"If the stars aren't found. Then we are all doomed. You must stop Tenebris."

The scout then collapsed, dead.

Daxter having recovered from the shock of the scouts appearance, looked at the similarly shocked Jak.

"So what did I miss?" Daxter asked.

"Well, you missed his ramblings." Jak explained. "He said something about a King of Shadows and how he's going to take over everything, and then he gave me this thing."

He presented said object to Daxter.

"Huh. What do you think it is?" Daxter asked.

"I don't really know, but we're about to find out." Jak said as he unwrapped the cloth that was wrapped around the object.

When he finished he found a star shaped object, with some symbols written in a circle.

"What is this thing?" Jak wondered.

"I'm not sure either." Daxter said observing the object. "But judging by the symbols, i'm going to guess that it's something that came from the precursors."

"Maybe, but it's unlike any other precursor artifact i've seen."

Suddenly the sandstorm finally caught of with them, knocking them off their feet.

Jak managed to get up and got his scarf on his mouth, and his goggles on so none of the sand went into his eyes.

He then ran over to Daxter, grabbed him, and got to the vehicle as quickly as he could. Which wasn't easy as the winds of the sandstorm were pretty strong.

Eventually they managed to get to in the vehicle and drive off.

"What do you think we should do with the object." Daxter asked.

"Let's go to Samos, maybe he knows what it is." Jak said.

* * *

A while later, they were back at haven city.

Samos was observing the object they found while Jak and Daxter waited.

Eventually Samos finished his research on the item and walked over to the two.

"What did you find out?" Jak asked.

"Well, this object you found is known as a precursor star." Samos explained. "And apparently this isn't the only one."

"Wait, you mean there's more of them?" Daxter asked surprised.

"Yes, the precursors made 5 of them, and then scattered the stars."

"Do you know where the rest of them are?" Jak asked.

"Unfortunately, No." Samos said. "This is the first one found in ages, I'm not sure where the rest are though."

"What about the other stuff you heard the scout said." Daxter asked. "Like this Tenebris person."

"Couldn't find anything about him." Samos said regretfully.

"That's okay." Jak said. "We at least found some information on this object."

"Your welcome." Samos said smiling.

With that, the two left.

* * *

An hour later they were at Daxter's bar.

"So that's one mystery solved." Jak said observing the Precursor star. "What about this King of Shadows."

"Probably someone that scout made up." Daxter said. "That scout was a bandit after all, and Samos couldn't find anything about him."

"I would agree with you, but still, I have a feeling that he wasn't making it up. Those black veins, the fact that he was pale looked a bit suspicious, and the fact he just dropped dead. It just tells me otherwise."

"He was probably just playing dead, and had some makeup as some giant act to scare us."

Jak didn't say anything, and he walked out of the bar.

He looked at the sky, which looked slightly darker than usual, which means it was probably close to night.

However, after everything he heard today, he wasn't too sure.

Daxter came out of the bar and saw Jak staring at the sky.

He then came up to Jak's shoulder. "Look, if this King of Shadows is real, remember we've dealt with far worse."

This made Jak feel slightly better, but still kept looking at the sky.

He felt that something was coming, and the two weren't going to prevent it alone.


	4. The Invasion Begins

**Author's Note:** _Now that we have established the macguffin and seen what our heroes had been doing since the last adventure, it's time for the plot to be set in motion._

* * *

Chapter 4. The Invasion Begins.

"CALVIN IT'S TIME TO GET UP!"

Calvin woke up for a moment, hearing the noise of his mother before drifting back to sleep.

"GET UP, GET DRESSED, YOU'RE GOING TO BE LATE FOR SCHOOL!"

"This is going to be the first highlight of my day." Calvin grumbled.

Just then Calvin's mom burst into the room.

"COME ON, GET UP!" She yelled.

Calvin came out of bed in a sleepy matter.

He then climbed into the top drawer and closed it, with each drawer opening a little bit as he went down and he emerged from the bottom drawer in his usual clothing.

It was then he noticed something was off.

He checked the window to see if it was raining, and he was perplexed to find that it was still dark outside.

"Hobbes you need to see this."

Hobbes emerged from Calvin's bed, having noticed that Calvin was staring out the window intently. He joined Calvin into staring at the window.

"Huh, I thought daylight savings time ends in November." Hobbes remarked.

"Or maybe mom woke me extremely early again." Calvin said. "It wouldn't be the first time."

"CALVIN GET DOWN HERE AND GET BREAKFAST!" Mom shrieked.

"Well, better get down there so mom can stop yelling." Calvin said, exiting the room.

Hobbes watched as Calvin went down the stairs before going back to the room.

He checked the clock, it was half past 6.

Hobbes frowned. Normally the sun would have been out by now, and yet it was still dark as night outside.

Something strange was happening, and he had a feeling it was going to get worse.

* * *

Meanwhile, Ratchet and Clank were resting after finishing the test drive of the repaired universal warp drive.

Clank had told Ratchet about the voice he heard on the radio. Ratchet found this interesting, but said that it was probably some stray signal that the radio picked up.

When Ratchet woke up, he noticed that the sky was black, even though he only few rested for a few hours.

Clank came out, and noticed the black sky as well.

"Hmm that's odd, it was supposed to be daylight until around six." Clank said.

"I would say it's weird weather, but this sudden darkness has never happened before." Ratchet said.

Clank went over to the tv and turned it on.

On it was a news report.

"In other news, scientists still have no explanation of the black skies that have mysteriously appeared in planets of the solana galaxy. We will bring you updates as we get more info."

Clank changed the channel, and it was the same report.

"The sky's have mysteriously turned black, and some planets affected haven't been heard from yet."

*Click*

"Black Skies have mysteriously appeared over the last…"

*Click*

Every channel Clank changed, it was the same story. Black Skies have appeared, some have lost contact with nearby planets, and no one knows what's happening.

"Well at least we know we're not from the only planet affected by this?" Ratchet said watching the television.

"But it still doesn't explain the loss of communications with some of the planet's affected by this." Clank said. "What happened to them?"

Ratchet looked out and saw something that troubled him.

"I think we're about to find out." Ratchet said getting out his blaster.

* * *

In Calvin's room, the MTM was sitting on the desk, reading when it's phone began to ring.

"Hmm, wonder who that could be?" The MTM asked.

He then checked the caller id.

"Why would he call after all this time?" perplexed at the identity.

* * *

Meanwhile, Hobbes was watching a nature documentary on tigers. Calvin's mother was out of the house getting groceries.

Suddenly the phone began to rang.

Hobbes went over to answer it.

"If it's one of those automated phone calls again." Hobbes muttered.

He grabbed it and put it up to his ear.

"Hey Hobbes." Socrates said.

"Hey Socrates." Hobbes said. "What prank are you planning to do on Calvin this time."

"Oh i'm not planning anything." Socrates said innocently.

"Socrates, the last time you said that, Calvin got water balloons full of ranch. Though that was pretty funny."

"That's not gonna happen." Socrates said. "But I want you to invite you to my home to watch some movies."

"Just you and I?" Hobbes asked.

"Nah, I invited Andy and Sherman over as well." Socrates answered.

"Oh, so what movies are we watching."

Socrates began listing some movies, but Hobbes frowned at one.

"I don't know about that one Socrates." Hobbes said. "Calvin really want's to see that movie, and he said that if I saw it without me, he would shock me with the MTM."

"Just once?" Socrates said.

"10 times actually." Hobbes said.

"Well don't worry, I won't start the movies until you're there." Socrates said.

"Okay i'll see you there. Just make sure you skip that one."

"I make no promises."

With that Hobbes hung up, and went back to watching his nature documentary.

This went on for a few more minutes before the nature documentary was suddenly interrupted.

The screen now read BREAKING NEWS.

Annoyed, he went for the remote to change the channel, until he heard a knock on the door.

"Who is it?" Hobbes yelled.

This resulted in more knocking.

"I said who is this?"

Even more knocking happened.

"Okay i'm coming." Hobbes said annoyed.

He approached the door, and opened it.

He found a person who looked like it had claws, and glowing white eyes.

"Um, who are you?" Hobbes asked.

The creature slowly looked up.

"Something tells me you don't want to sell me something."

The creature then opened it's mouth, letting out a screech.

It then charged at Hobbes, who quickly got out of the way, causing the creature to crash in the wall.

This however didn't deter the creature, as it turned to Hobbes, charging towards him, and when it was close to him, began slashing wildly.

Hobbes managed to dodge the slashes of the creature, all the way into the kitchen.

While in the kitchen he grabbed cans of tuna and began tossing them at the creature. He managed to hit the creature a few times, however when he threw the last can of tuna, it flew into the creature's mouth, and after a few seconds burped.

"Sorry." Hobbes said smiling innocently.

The creature charged at him again. He ran into the dining room, flipping the table to delay the creature.

Hobbes then ran up the stairs, knowing that there were inventions in Calvins room.

The MTM noticed Hobbes sudden entrance.

"Hello there Hobbes." The MTM said in a casual tone "Judging by the speed and urgency you entered the room, I'm going to guess your in danger. Also, I received a message from Daxter saying..."

"Not now MTM, somethings trying to kill me and I need one of Calvin's inventions." Hobbes quickly said.

"Well if you say so."

He then shut the door hoping that it would buy him some time. The MTM used it's manipulator arms to throw the hypercube and Hobbes started digging through it.

"No, not that one." Hobbes muttered as he dug through the hypercube.

He heard banging on the door and eventually, the sound of wood breaking, A sign that the creature was coming. Hobbes quickened the search.

Eventually he found a water pistol.

"Yes, that's it." Hobbes said with a smile.

He then aimed the water pistol at the door at the door.

"Okay MTM, whatever comes in, i need you to stun it with your electric attack, then i'll fire the transmogrifier gun at it."

"Got it." The MTM said.

By then the creature had broken through the door, and was once again charging at him again. However Hobbes was ready.

"NOW!" Hobbes yelled and the MTM fired a beam of electricity. It hit the creature, causing it to stop and shake.

Hobbes then fired a laser at the creature.

The laser hit the creature and the creature stopped, before then melting in a pile of goo.

Hobbes took a moment to catch his breath before grabbing the MTM.

"MTM, can you analyze the goo so I can figure out what that creature was?" Hobbes asked.

"Certainly." The MTM said. "Just point me at the puddle of goo and i'll try to figure out what it is."

Hobbes did so, and the beam scanned the puddle of goo, and after about a minute the MTM beeped.

"Okay i've got it." The MTM said.

"So, what is it?" Hobbes asked.

The MTM paused before replying. "I have no idea. But I know that it's not from our universe, and that's not the only one."

Hobbes heart almost skipped a beat. "Wait, you mean there's even more of these?"

"Yes, and they're almost all over the world."

Hobbes then remembered Calvin was at school, and knew he had to get him.

Within a second, Hobbes had vanished from the room, and had grabbed a flashlight, he was now running to the school to get Calvin.

* * *

Meanwhile in Ratchet's universe, Ratchet was holding off the same type creature that Hobbes fought, however there were tons of them.

Ratchet was doing his best to hold the creatures off, but there were simply too many of them, and he was quickly running out of ammo.

Knowing he couldn't defeat all of them, Ratchet slowly backed away into his workshop, Clank was in there waiting to close the doors.

Eventually, Ratchet was close to the workshop, with the creatures rapidly approaching.

"Clank, close the door now!" Ratchet said.

Clank nodded and pressed the button that would close the doors.

The doors quickly closed, and Ratchet dived into the workshop just before it shut.

A creature managed to get part way through before having its leg getting trapped by the door. But despite this, the creature clawed at both Ratchet and Clank before Ratchet brought his wrench down on it, finishing it off.

They then stared at the door, which was already beginning to banging due to the creatures knocking on the door.

"Do you think this will hold?" Ratchet asked Clank.

"Not likely." Clank said. "But it should give us enough time to escape."

"Yeah, but how are we going to do that? We're nearly surrounded."

Clank looked around, and then noticed the aphelion, sitting there, and thought about something.

Ratchet noticed the aphelion as well and thought about the same thing as well.

"I have a feeling you're thinking what i'm thinking." Clank said.

Ratchet nodded confirming this.

* * *

In Calvin's universe, Calvin was at school and was about to have lunch.

He sat next to Susie, and got out his lunch.

"Hey Susie." Calvin said.

"Calvin, I don't want to hear about your lunch today." Susie said.

"Look Susie, it's just peanut butter and jelly, there's nothing on it." Calvin said. "Though the jelly came from a squid my mom found, and the peanut butter came from the bottom of a crocodile swamp."

Calvin noticed Susie was gone.

Calvin sighed. "Nobody wants to hear my stories on how I got my lunch."

He was eating for about a minute before noticing a flashing light out the window.

Intrigues he put down his sandwich and approached the window.

He looked out it, but noticed nothing.

Then the flashlight turned on again, revealing Hobbes making a scary face.

"AAAAAAAH." Calvin screamed, leaping a few feet back.

Everyone looked at Calvin for a moment, and then went back to their lunches.

Calvin looked at Hobbes again who looked normal.

"Hobbes what are you doing here?" Calvin asked.

"Get outside and i'll explain." Hobbes said.

Calvin opened the window, and crawled through it.

"So what is it that you want to explain to me?" Calvin asked crossing his arms.

"Calvin, those black skies aren't just a weird weather phenomenon, it's something is invading our world." Hobbes said.

Calvin raised an eyebrow. "How do you know this?"

Hobbes told him about the black creature that attacked him at the house.

"Hmm." Calvin said. "That does sound like something that would attack us. So what do these things look like?"

Hobbes then noticed something and his eyes widened.

"What is it Hobbes?" Calvin asked.

"To answer your previous question, they look like that." Hobbes said pointing behind Calvin.

Calvin turned as his eye's widened as well.

Two creatures, similar to the one that attacked Hobbes, were coming towards them.

Hobbes gave the transmogrifier gun to Calvin. "This seems to work well against them."

"Thanks." Calvin said before he aimed it at one of the creatures.

He fired, and hit the creature, which promptly turned into goo.

"Heh, they should be easily defeated." Calvin said with a smug smile.

However the other creature noticed the puddle of goo, and touched it.

The puddle was absorbed by the creature, and it began to change.

It grew taller, it's claws became sharper, and grew some spikes.

The now transformed creature turned towards the two, and roared, revealing it had sharp teeth.

"We should probably run now." Calvin said, no longer smiling.

Hobbes nodded, and the two ran away.

"What should we do?" Hobbes asked as they ran.

"We get Andy, Sherman, and Socrates. Then we get out of here." Calvin said.

"Where to?"

"If you said it's happened all over the world, we're gettin off this planet."

The two then ran in the direction of Socrates house.

* * *

At Socrates house, Andy and Sherman were sitting in front of the tv, while Socrates was getting a blu ray disc out. Or more accurately Andy was watching the tv, and Sherman was reading a book.

"Okay, it appears Hobbes isn't coming so i'm going to start the movie." Socrates said, about to press play.

"In case you're wondering, I'm not going to spoil whatever happens in the film to Calvin." Andy said.

"Me neither." Sherman said. "But i'm probably not going to pay attention to the film."

They then heard the door slam.

The three turned, and saw Calvin and Hobbes catching their breaths.

"Ah there you are Hobbes." Socrates said. "I was about to start the film, and I see you brought Calvin as well."

"No time Socrates." Hobbes said quickly. "We need to get out of here now."

Meanwhile Calvin was staring at the movie Socrates was about to watch.

"You weren't going to watch the new Star Wars movie without me were you?" Calvin asked while glaring at Socrates.

"Ummm, no." Socrates said straining a grin.

"Good because I would have shocked you with the MTM for watching it without me."

Hobbes stared at him confused. "I thought you were going to shock me."

"That is correct, but I was going to shock you for spoiling it for me."

"Oh." Hobbes said.

"Now then back to the business at hand." Calvin said turning back to the three. "You remember the black skies that appeared this morning."

Everyone Nodded.

"Well to give you the short version, creatures are invading the earth and can absorb the remains of the their own, and we need to get out of here."

"Wait, what creatures?" Andy asked.

Hobbes went over to the tv remote and changed it to a news report.

"The president has officially announced a state of emergency. These creatures are confirmed to become stronger when one of them are killed. We encourage you to stay in your homes until rescue operators you."

The channel then went offline.

Everyone stared at the tv in shock.

"Does that give you any more reason to go." Calvin asked.

Everyone nodded.

Everyone ran outside.

By then the invasion was in full force, creatures were almost everywhere, so they had to fight their way through.

By the time they reached Calvin's house, a hundred creatures were pursuing them.

As they went inside Calvin shot a few creatures despite the fact that some of the creatures.

Hobbes shut the door once everyone was in, and propped a chair against it.

However, it was clear that would only buy them some time, as the creatures began looking for other entrances inside, and found them by the windows, which they started banging on.

Knowing that the glass wouldn't hold, Calvin, Hobbes, Andy, Sherman, and Socrates ran up the stairs.

They went into Calvin's room and went into the closet. While the rest waited, they heard the dreaded sound of glass breaking, a sign that the creatures were going to come in soon.

Finally, Calvin came out dragging a Cardboard box.

"Everyone get in." Calvin said.

Without hesitation everyone dived in the box, with Hobbes grabbing the MTM. Diving into the box all at once caused them to basically get jumbled together.

"Honestly, you could have waited, until I made the box bigger." Calvin said rolling his eyes.

"JUST GET US OUT OF HERE ALREADY!" Everyone yelled.

"Okay, Okay." Calvin said.

After a few seconds the box began to lift off and flew out of the window, with one of the Creature grabbing on to the box, beginning to climb it.

When it reached the top he was greeted by Hobbes.

"Sorry, you don't have ticket." he said.

He then pried the creature's fingers off of the box, causing it to presumably, fall to it's death.

Once they were high enough, Calvin stopped the box, and the five looked at the destruction that has happened so far.

The saw the buildings on fire, and people down below running in the street's.

"So what do we do now?" Andy asked.

Calvin considered his options. Going somewhere on Earth was out of the question because it this was happening everywhere.

However the MTM brought up an idea for his destination.

"Now that we have a moment to breathe, I'd like to share something I found out this morning." it said.

"What is it?" Calvin asked.

"Earlier this morning I got a call from Daxter, the first time i've heard from our friends in the other universes in months, he said he and Jak had found a mysterious artifact, as well as a warning about someone named the king of shadows."

"And i'm probably guessing that this is probably this kings handywork." Hobbes said as he surveyed the destruction.

"I'm guessing so because when I scanned the puddle of goo, I sensed a connection to something bigger."

"So Jak and Daxter must know something." Calvin said.

"Probably not, but it's our best shot."

"Okay, setting course for Jak and Daxter's Universe."

Calvin pushed buttons on the box, and the box began to fly into space. With a glass dome covering the box, sealing them in.

Once they were in space, they looked down at Earth, they almost missed it in the darkness in space because the planet seemed to have turned black.

After staring at it for half a minute, Calvin pressed a few buttons, and turned to the rest of the group.

"You may want to hang onto something." He said.

"But there's nothing to hold onto." Sherman pointed out.

"Well, just put your hands on the glass."

Everyone stretched their arms to the side and put their hands on the glass.

Just then a portal opened up, and the box went through it, gaining a burst of speed along the way.

* * *

Meanwhile, the creatures had finally broken through the door to Ratchet and Clank's workshop. However, the duo was nowhere to be found.

Unbeknownst to the creatures, Ratchet and Clank were hiding in the aphelion.

Ratchet's hand was on a button, waiting for the Clanks signal.

The plan was to wait until the creatures were close enough, and then fire the weapons at them, creating a path to escape.

Clank was peeking from the cockpit, and saw that the creatures were closing in on them.

He then looked at Ratchet.

"Do it." he said.

Ratchet pressed the button, but instead of firing the weapons, the radio began playing a song.

That got the creatures attention, and they began to close in faster.

"Wrong button." Ratchet said, with Clank shaking his head.

Ratchet then found the right button, and the weapons fired at the creatures, taking out several of them.

"Let's get out of here." Ratchet said.

He then began to steer the aphelion towards the now destroyed entrance, flying through it. As he did that, various creatures tried to grab the ship, some did but were soon pulled off by the speed.

Eventually the ship went into space, giving the duo a chance to rest.

"That was too close." Ratchet said.

"Agreed." Clank said. "Where do we go now?"

"Well going to another planet is out of the question." Ratchet said listing their options. "And we can't go to another galaxy, because the same thing is most likely happening to them."

"So i'd take it our only option is going to another universe." Clank said. "But which one?"

Ratchet then began to put coordinates in. "Let's go to Sonic's universe, we might as well start getting our friends from the other universes back together."

"That's a good idea." Clank said nodding.

"Let's just hope the universal hyperdrive manages to hold." Ratchet said.

About a minute later, the aphelion gained a burst of speed, before disappearing into space.


	5. Reunion

Chapter 5. Reunion.

Above a forest, a portal opened, and out came a cardboard box.

"Well, we've arrived at Jak's universe." Calvin said. "Now all we have to do is find him."

"This won't be easy." Sherman said. "Who knows where he is?"

"Well he lives in Haven City." Hobbes said. "So that should narrow down the search area."

Suddenly, the box made a sound that sounded like a engine dying, and slowly began to dip.

"Calvin what's happening?" Andy asked as they descended.

"Well it appears that the box ran out of fuel, and had to turn off the engine." Calvin said casually. "We may have a crash landing."

"CALVIN!" Everyone yelled as they descended.

Calvin then pressed a button on the box, causing the side flaps of the box to straighten sideways, causing it to glide.

"At least some of the features still work." Hobbes said.

Calvin did his best to steer the box to the city, and he barely got it over the city walls without crashing into them.

"Okay, judging from my knowledge Daxters bar should be that way." Calvin said pointing left. "Hopefuly they're there."

"Well, we better hurry." Socrates said looking down. "Because the box is getting closer to the ground."

Calvin then turned left, straightening the box as he did.

However just as he was close to their destination, the box flaps suddenly lowered, and something began beeping.

Calvin looked at the controls, and he began to frown. "Oh." he said.

Then the box began to rapidly descend and spin.

Hobbes eyes widened. "EVERYONE PANIC." he yelled.

Everyone, included Calvin began to scream.

* * *

Outside, Jak and Daxter were walking towards Naughty Otsel.

"So you called the MTM from Calvin's universe, telling you off the things we found yesterday, and some of the concerns we have." Jak said.

"Yep." Daxter said. "Though I haven't heard from Calvin, or Hobbes yet."

"Well they do have their own lives. So they may not have time to answer us." Jak said.

Suddenly, he noticed something coming right towards the two.

"Is that a cardboard box?" Daxter said squinting before his eyes began to widen. "And it's coming right at us."

They divided out of the way, however the box hit Daxter sending him to the wall that the box crashed into.

Jak got up and saw that the box had landed with it's opening upside down.

Then, the occupants of the box emerged.

"Well I did say it was going to be a crash landing." Calvin said as he crawled outside of the box.

"I didn't expect it to be this rough." Hobbes said emerging from the box as well. "Now let's lift this box up

"Calvin? Hobbes?" Jak asked, a bit shocked at their sudden appearance.

Calvin and Hobbes, who were lifting the box to get the rest of their friends, stopped and turned, noticing him.

"Huh, that was a bit quicker than I thought it would be." Calvin said.

The two ran over to him, anxious to catch up on what he had been up to since the last time they saw them.

"So, where's Daxter?" Hobbes asked.

Just then they heard a moan.

Everyone turned to the box, revealing that Daxter had crashed into a wall.

He then fell onto the box. Which Socrates lifted up from beneath.

"Ah, I believe I didn't properly introduce my other friends the last time you met them." Calvin said as Andy, Sherman, and Socrates came out and approached them. "This is, Andy, Sherman, and Socrates."

"Hello." Andy said waving at Jak.

"I'm sorry we had to make a crash landing before we were introduced to you." Sherman said.

"Please to meet you." Socrates said outstretching his hand.

However just as Jak was about to shake his hand, Hobbes stopped him. He and Calvin then began to pat Socrates down.

They pulled out various objects, such as a squirt flower, a whoopie cushion, and hand buzzer.

Calvin raised his eyebrow at Socrates, who smiled innocently.

"I have no idea where those came from." Socrates claimed.

Calvin then turned back to Jak. "Continue." he said.

Jak then shook Socrates hand.

Once that was done Jak turned to Hobbes.

"What was that all about?" Jak asked.

"Well Socrates is a bit of a prankster." Hobbes explained. "We kind of had to do this a few times because of the amount of times he did to us."

Jak then nodded before turning to the group.

"So what brings you here?" Daxter asked, having recovered from being hit by the box.

"Well, it's kind of a long story." Calvin said. "Mind if I tell you?"

* * *

In a blue tunnel of light, the aphelion was traveling towards Sonic's universe.

Ratchet checked the monitor in the cockpit.

"We should be arriving at Sonic's universe in about a few minutes." He said to Clank.

Clank nodded.

a couple minutes later the monitor began beeping.

The two looked at the monitor and saw that it had turned red and flashing words.

 **WARNING!: MALFUNCTION ON HYPERDRIVE! PRESS FOR MORE INFORMATION.**

Ratchet pressed a button, and a diagram of the Aphelion appeared. With a part at the back end being highlighted, which was the universe hyperdrive.

"That is definitely not good." Clank said with a worrying look.

"We just have a minute left before arriving in Sonic's Universe." Ratchet said as he began to add speed to the aphelion. "Let's hope the hyperdrive holds until we get there."

As they flew, Clank stared at the monitor. The hyperdrive malfunction was getting worse, Eventually it flashed another set of words.

 **MALFUNCTION REACHING CRITICAL LEVELS.**

"Ratchet?" Clank said getting more worried.

"Just a few more seconds." Ratchet said.

After he said that Ratchet pressed a button and the tunnel of light vanished, Revealing a planet below them.

"See?" Ratchet said smiling. "We made it. We just need to get to Sonic…"

Just then, they felt the ship shake.

The monitor beeped, and it now said.

 **ERROR: HYPERDRIVE HAS EXPLODED, THRUSTERS OFFLINE, FIRE ON BACK.**

Just then the aphelion began to descend towards the planet.

Ratchet began pressing buttons, but nearly every one of them wouldn't respond to their functions.

"Should we panic?" Ratchet asked Clank.

Clank nodded.

They began to scream as they entered the atmosphere.

* * *

On the surface of the planet. Sonic was lying down, looking at the sky. Tails was looking through binoculars, and Amy was sitting, reading a book.

"So, see anything Tails?" Sonic asked.

"Nothing." Tails replied.

Sonic went back to looking at the sky.

This had been like this for the past 8 months, with robot attacks happening occasionally.

Sonic then noticed something in the sky.

"Tail's what is that thing flying through the sky?" He asked pointing somewhere is the sky.

Tails focused on it with his binoculars and his eyes widened.

"Is that Ratchet's ship?" he asked.

Sonic quickly grabbed the binoculars from Tails and looked through them and saw that he was right.

Ratchet's ship was spinning in the air, with it's back on fire.

Amy, who had heard them, then grabbed the binoculars from Sonic and looked through them.

"It looks like they're about to crash." She said.

At that moment they watched the rapidly descending Aphelion to see where it was going. Eventually disappearing from sight.

Sonic then began to ran in the direction the aphelion went, with Tails and Amy following.

"Why would Ratchet come here after all this time?" Tails asked. "Not only that but with their ship on fire."

"Well maybe they were testing something and accidently teleported to our universe." Sonic said.

Eventually they reached where the aphelion landed, which wasn't hard as it had hit some trees and had dragged across the ground.

When they finally saw the ship, they froze in shock.

The ship was upside down with both wings gone, and the thrusters on fire.

Sonic quickly went to the cockpit, and noticed Ratchet unconscious, and Clank was next to the window banging on it.

"Amy, get over here, we may need your hammer." Sonic said turning to her.

Amy went over and began hammering the glass on the cockpit, which was partially broken due to the crash.

Eventually she shattered the glass, allowing Clank to get out. While Tails draged Ratchet out of the aphelion

After they got away from the burning wreckage, they checked on Ratchet, who was still unconscious.

Sonic nudged him slightly, causing him to groan.

"Well at least he's still alive." Tails said.

Sonic then went to Clank. "Clank, what exactly happened to cause you and Ratchet to travel all the way here?"

"Well it's complicated." Clank said. "But I can explain it."

* * *

Meanwhile in Jak's universe, Calvin had just finished telling Jak and Daxter his story.

"So your universe got attacked by black creatures who get stronger when they absorb the remains of their kind." Daxter said.

"That sums it up." Hobbes said nodding.

"And you came here in hopes you can get information of what's happening because Daxter called the MTM." Jak said.

"Yep." Calvin said.

"Well unfortunately we don't really have much information ourselves." Jak explained. "All we had to go on is the ramblings of a bandit, a object said bandit had, and what little information Samos had."

"May we see the object?" Sherman asked. "I think we'd like to have a closer look."

Jak nodded and brought him the precursor star.

Calvin, Hobbes, Andy, Sherman, and Socrates examined the star.

"So this is the object Daxter said you found." Calvin said.

"Yep that's the one." Daxter said.

"And you have no other information on this object other than the precursors made it, and there are four more of these things."

"Yes." Jak said

Calvin then stood up "Well I think we're overlooking a simple solution here."

"And that is?" Socrates asked.

"The library." Calvin said standing proudly.

He then turned to Jak. "Does Haven City have a library by any chance?" he asked.

"Yes, but it's going to be a bit of a walk."

"Well we better get started." Andy said.

With that the group exited the building, and began walking towards the library.

* * *

Back in Sonic's Universe Clank was finishing telling his story to Sonic.

"And so we crashed here because the hyperdrive overheated and exploded." Clank said.

"I see." Sonic said. "And you came to our universe to get our assistance."

"Yes, but we can't go back to our universe now that our ship is destroyed."

Ratchet then woke up.

"Clank, were about to…" He said, before noticing clank, Sonic, Tails and Amy standing there.

"It's okay Ratchet, I've already explained what had happened to them." Clank said.

Ratchet then looked at the burning wreck that was once his ship.

"And I can't exactly repair the aphelion quickly, judging from the damage." Ratchet said.

"You can stay with us for a while until the aphelion is repaired." Amy said.

"Thank's guys." Ratchet said. "Maybe Tails can help me repair the ship."

"I'll be happy to assist you." Tails said

As Tails and Ratchet approached the aphelion, the ship's monitor turned on and began producing a static sound.

"Huh." Ratchet said. "Thought it got disabled during the crash."

As Ratchet went to investigate it, a voice came through the speakers.

"YOUR UNIVERSE HAS FALLEN, LOMBAX!"

The sudden voice cause Ratchet to step back, and the others to turn to the aphelion.

"I HAVE ALREADY TAKEN OVER OTHER UNIVERSES BEFORE COMING TO YOURS!" The voice continued. "AND WITH HOW RUTHLESSLY I CONQUERED YOUR UNIVERSE. THE OTHERS WILL FALL SOON ENOUGH, NOT EVEN YOUR FRIENDS UNIVERSES ARE SAFE."

As they listened to the voice Ratchet turned to Clank.

"Was this the voice you heard on the radio Clank?" he asked.

Clank nodded.

"NOW I, TENEBRIS, THE LORD OF SHADOWS, SHALL FIND THE REST OF YOUR FRIENDS, ELIMINATE THEM, AND THERE WILL BE NO ONE TO STAND IN MY WAY!"

With that, the speaker exploded.

Everyone just stared at the aphelion, shocked at what they just heard.

Finally Sonic said something. "We should probably try to contact our friends universes."

"Wait, you don't happen to have something that can send messages across universes?" Ratchet asked.

"As a matter of fact we do." Sonic said. "Calvin handed us one before we left for our own universes last time."

"Well then let's go." Clank said.

With that the group ran off.


	6. A Trip to the Library

Chapter 6. A Visit to the Library

After walking for about an hour, Calvin, Hobbes, Andy, Sherman, Socrates, Jak, and Daxter had finally arrived at the library.

The library was in between two building large and when compared to the buildings. It looked small.

"So this is the library." Calvin said looking at it

"Yep." Daxter said. "Though barely anyone goes in there due to the placement of the building."

"So the building should be empty?" Hobbes asked.

"Yep."

With that the group entered the library.

However neither of them noticed the sky had begun to darken, and not because it was going from day to night.

* * *

The library was obviously filled with books, however there were holographic signs on the shelves saying what place in the dewey decimal system the books were in.

The librarian, hearing the doors open, looked up from the book he was reading.

"Hello there." He said in a bored voice. "You're the first people to walk in here today."

He then began explaining the rules. "Being this is a library it's required of you to be quiet, no running in the hallways, no tearing pages out of books. If you want to check out a book you must come here and i'll check it out for you, you must return the book by it's due date or you'll have to pay a fee if it's overdue. Any questions?"

Calvin raised his hand. "What if we want to find a specific book?"

"Use the card catalog that's in the back." The librarian said pointing behind him.

"Thanks."

With that they began walking to the back of the library.

"I can't believe this library still uses card catalogs instead of computers." Sherman said.

"Well this library is short on funding." Jak explained. "They're considering just closing it down if they can't get more funding by next month."

"I think I know where some of the funding went to." Socrates said looking at the holograms on the shelves.

They eventually reached the card catalog, Which consisted of multiple drawers in one big block of wood.

"This is probably going to take a while." Andy said.

"Let's just start with what we know so far." Calvin said before turning to Jak. "The king's name was Tenebris, right?"

Jak nodded.

"Well let's start in the t section then." Calvin said going towards the T's.

He opened the drawer, and began searching.

"Let's see." He muttered as he went though the cards.

However after searching through the cards he found nothing.

Hobbes turned to Daxter. "You said that this Tenebris guy was known as the king of shadows?"

"Yep." Daxter said.

Hobbes then went to the S drawer.

"Let's see, there's a book about shadow puppets, a book about the science of shadows." Hobbes said as he went through the cards.

He did pull out a card that read _The Secret History of The Universe_.

"I'm going to look for this book that i found on one of the cards." Hobbes said. "It might be interesting."

"Hopefuly it has some information about what we're trying to find out." Calvin said looking through P section of the card catalog.

He saw a card that got his attention, it read, _Precursor Artifact's._

He then handed the card to Jak, who then went to get the book.

A few seconds latter Hobbes came back with the book he was looking for.

"Okay." Hobbes said putting the book on the table. "Let's hope this trip was worthwhile."

With that, he began reading the book

A moment later Jak came back with his book and began to look through it.

This went on for about a few minutes, until Hobbes found something.

"Calvin come over here."

Calvin, as well as the others, went over to Hobbes.

"What is it?" Calvin asked.

"Did you find out anything?" Andy asked.

"Is is something important." Sherman asked.

"Yes in fact." Hobbes said. "It's about Tenebris."

"What did you find out about him?" Daxter asked

"Apparently when the precursors were creating this universe, they encountered a being known as Tenebris, he had conquered multiple universe's with creatures known as Umbra." Hobbes said reading through the book.

"Umbra's eh?" Socrates said. "I'd take it they weren't umbrella salesmen."

"And apparently they grew stronger when they absorb their remains."

"And we just had to find out the hard way." Calvin said.

"Because this universe was quickly developing. Tenebris decided to take over this universe early."

"Then why are we not living in fear of some dark king?" Daxter asked. "The Precursors must have stopped him."

"They used some artifacts known as precursor stars to seal the king and his creatures up, and they threw him in some far off corner, after that they scattered the precursor stars."

"Typical." Andy muttered. "Instead of destroying the person causing problems, they just lock them up in a prison and hope no one bothers him."

"So where are the rest of the Precursor stars, and Why are they so important?" Calvin asked.

As if he heard him, Jak tossed the book he was reading to Calvin. Unfortunately it hit his head.

"Sorry." Jak said. "I found something that might answer your second question."

Rubbing his head, Calvin read through the book.

"Apparently the precursor stars are the only things that can stop Tenebris." Calvin said reading them.

"Now that we've answered one of the questions." Sherman said. "Let's answer the other one."

"Oh that one's pretty easy." Calvin said. "MTM."

"Yes?"

"Locate where the remaining 4 precursor stars are."

"Very well."

The MTM then began its search.

After a few moments the MTM beeped.

"Done."

"So where are the rest of the stars?" Daxter asked.

"Well they appear to be in different universes." The MTM explained. "And 3 of them just happen to be our own, Sonic's, and Ratchets."

"What about the 4th one?" Hobbes said asked.

"Don't know. It's in a unknown universe."

"We'll work on that when we get to it." Calvin said picking up the MTM. "Right now we got our information, let's just check out these books and get to Sonic's universe."

"That's not a bad idea" Hobbes said as they went to the front desk. "Maybe you should call Ratchet along the way, we could need all the help we can get."

"I'll consider it." Calvin said.

They then reached the front desk, they found the librarian sitting in his chair, facing away from them.

"Sir, we'd like to check out these books." Andy said.

The librarian didn't respond.

Calvin rang the bell. "Sir, didn't you hear my friend.

Still no response.

Hobbes then put his hand on the librarians shoulder and turned the chair around.

"In case you didn't hear…." Hobbes began before stopping when he saw the librarians face.

The librarian's face was pale, with both eyes completely blank and his mouth hanging wide open, as if he was frozen in a scream.

Everyone stared at the librarian in shock, their eyes wide.

Just then Hobbes heard a familiar growl above them.

He looked up and his eyes widened even more.

He tapped Calvin's shoulder and he looked up as well.

"Uh Jak, did you ever want to see the Umbra in real life?" Calvin said

"Why do you ask that?"

"Well, there's a bunch of them right above us."

Jak looked up and saw almost thirty Umbra on the ceiling, and they were sleeping.

In shock, he dropped the books, and they landed on the floor with an audible thud.

The Umbra then opened their eyes, and looked at the group, and began to drop down the ceiling.

Jak fired his blaster at the umbra, but there was too many of them.

"We need to get out of here now." Calvin said as he grabbed the books from off the ground.

Everyone ran to the exit, with Jak and Calvin trying to hold the umbra off. Once everyone was out, Jak fired a plasmite bomb in the library and Hobbes slammed the door shut.

"That was too close." Daxter said as the group took a moment to catch their breath.

"Who would have thought that a trip to the library would almost get us killed." Daxter said.

"Is it just me, or did the sky did darker while we were in there." Socrates said looking up at the sky.

Everyone looked at the sky and saw that it had turned almost black.

They then heard a loud roar coming from the library, and they turned towards it.

Just then the roof shattered, an Umbra had survived Jak's plasmite bomb, and had absorbed the remains from the rest and it was now the size of a small skyscraper.

"MTM, please tell me you have the universe teleporter ready." Calvin said as they backed away.

"Yes I do, and I fixed the glitch where we get teleported into an alternate universe where we can only speak in rhymes." The MTM said.

"That's good. Now teleport us to Sonic's Universe."

"Teleporting."

During this time, the Umbra had raised its fist and had begun to lower it towards the group.

Just as it was about to squash them, the MTM teleported the group out of the situation, Causing the first to hit nothing.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** _Apologies for the delay. Real life got in the way._

 _See you next time._


	7. The Transmission

**Author's Note:** _Apologies for the delay, laziness struck again, but the bigger problem was college._

 _Anyway Enjoy the chapter._

* * *

Chapter 7. The Transmission.

Somewhere in another universe. A tall thin man with black robes and skin that was as pale as a skeleton. His head had no hair, his eyes black, and skin that hugged tightly on his skull to the point where you could see his teeth.

This was Tenebris, king of the Umbra. But he more commonly known as the king of shadows.

He was sitting on throne overlooking a city. A city that was now ruined due to him taking it over as well as the universe it resides in.

He had gotten a report on the invasion progress. Over a thousand universes had fallen to him, and while some tried to fight it off, they were simply overwhelmed and ended up falling to the Umbra. And more were falling to his rule by the hour.

He smiled, by the end of the day, he would possess a small part of the universe's.

He then heard a knock "Enter." he said in a deep voice.

A man came in wearing the same black robes as Tenebris with a hood hiding his face, but his hands were as pale as the king.

"Master, another 100 universes have fallen." The hooded figure said. "And about 500 are currently being invaded."

"Good." Tenebris said. "Anything Else?"

"A servant came to me, saying he had some important information for you."

"Let me see it."

The hooded figure pulled a folder from out of his robes and handed it to Tenebris.

He looked over the contents of the folder. In the folder was the information of Sonic, Calvin, Hobbes, Jak, Daxter, Ratchet and Clank.

"Do you know where these people are right now?"

"Well our last report of this Ratchet person was that he and his robot friend escaped by ship and managed to blast away some of our minions as they flew away, we have no idea where he is now."

"And the boy and his tiger?"

"Well the last sighting of the boy and tiger was with the two known as Jak, and Daxter, along with 3 unidentified people. Though they vanished before they were squashed by one of our minions. Similar to the case with Ratchet, We don't know where they are now, but we presume they are alive."

That was apparently the wrong thing to say to Tenebris, as his eyes suddenly turned red and almost instantaneously was in front of the Hooded figure and in spite of his thin build, lifted him up by the neck.

"YOU LET THEM ESCAPE!" he said, his voice filled with rage.

"Please sir there was nothing they could do." The hooded figure said, struggling to breathe

"IF FROM WHAT I'VE READ IS TRUE, THEN THEY MUST BE HEADING TO THAT HEDGEHOG'S UNIVERSE AND LAST I CHECKED, IT'S NOT UNDER OUR RULE. SEND SOME TROOPS THERE, CONQUER IT AND IF YOU FIND THESE PEOPLE, KILL THEM AND BRING ME THEIR BODIES!"

"Y..ye...yes sir." The hooded figure stuttered.

Tenebres let go of the figure, causing him to fall to the floor.

"And don't come back unless you have the news of their death." Tenebris said, now with a much calmer voice.

The hooded figure then ran out of the room.

Tenebris then went back to his throne and continued to watch the city down below.

* * *

Meanwhile, in a temple in ruins a sphere of electricity began to form and in a flash Calvin, Hobbes, Andy, Sherman, Socrates, Jak and Daxter appeared.

After recovering from the distortion that came with teleporting they looked around.

"Where are we?" Andy asked.

They looked around and saw that they were in some kind of ruin, but some of the ruins were submerged in water.

"I teleported you to Sonic's universe." The MTM explained.

"Why did you teleport us in the middle of nowhere instead of teleporting us near Sonic?" Daxter asked. "It would have been much easier and we could have explained what's happening."

"Yes but I decided the precursor star was more important so I teleported you near it."

"Well if this is Sonic's universe we need to contact him." Hobbes said. "He and his friends need to know what's going on."

"I'll try to contact him." Calvin said picking up the MTM. "And maybe i'll contact Ratchet. Maybe he can help."

He then cleared his throat. "MTM begin transmitting message."

Meanwhile, about a thousand miles away, Sonic was trying to help Ratchet fix his ship, and they were no closer to getting it fully operational then when we last saw them. Meanwhile Tails, Amy and Clank were trying to get a message from

They had managed to extinguish the flames and repair most of the cockpit, but the right wing was lost, and the damage done in the universe hyperdrive explosion was almost impossible to repair.

"Ratchet, we did the best we could but a full repair seams to be impossible at this rate." Sonic said.

"Your right." Ratchet said. "Maybe Clank managed to contact Calvin and if he comes, he can get the MTM to repair the rest of the ship. After all it managed to fix Tail's biplane when we first met."

Sonic nodded. The biplane, known as the Tornado, was Tails plane and when the heroes first met, Calvin had used the MTM to repair if after a confrontation with Eggman caused it to crash.

Just then the aphelion began to beep.

"Incoming Transmission. Incoming Transmission."

The two looked at the aphelion.

"You don't think it's this Tenebris person again, don't you?" Ratchet said.

"Only one way to find out." Sonic said approaching the aphelion.

But instead of the deep voice they had heard previously, a familiar one came on.

"Hello, Hello. Is anyone reading this?"

Ratchet stared at the aphelion.

"That's Calvin's voice." he said.

Sonic then turned to Ratchet. "Get the others, tell them we managed to contact Calvin.

Ratchet nodded and ran off.

Sonic went back to the transmission.

"Hello. MTM are you sure this is transmitting?" Calvin's voice said.

"Calvin, is that you?" Sonic said, hoping to get the message wasn't pre recorded.

The transmission paused. As if shocked that he spoke.

"Sonic, is that you?" Calvin asked.

"Yes." Sonic replied. "Where are you?"

"We're in your universe. I have Hobbes, Jak, Daxter, and some others with me. I'd explain what happened, but The MTM doesn't want to go over on data. So if you can come meet us."

"Do you know where you are in my universe." Sonic asked, wondering why Jak was with them as well.

"Well it looks like some ruin, but some are submerged."

"Ah, then you must be in the Labrynth Zone."

"Well that's a bit obvious." Calvin said. "Is there anyone else with you?"

"Yes, Ratchet arrived a couple of hours ago, and by arrived I mean crash landed and needs the MTM to fully fix it. Said his universe was attacked."

"So that makes three of us." Calvin remarked.

"Wait your universe was attacked too?" Sonic asked.

"Yep, so was Jak's. That's why we fled here, it seems to be the only universe we know of that wasn't attacked."

"We'll come find you." Sonic said. "We should be there in about a couple of hours."

"Hold on, Hobbes what is it?" Calvin said before coming back in a panicked voice. "We need to go, Hobbes sees ships coming towards us."

The message went dead.

Just then Ratchet had brought back Clank, Tails and Amy.

After a bit of a pause Sonic spoke.

"Tails get the Tornado ready, we're going to the Labrynth Zone."

* * *

At the Aquatic Ruin Zone, The ships that Hobbes had spotted were Eggman's robots. You see they caught Calvin's transmission and since Calvin was a friend of Sonic, their programming was that they needed to be killed.

Right now they were Scanning the area looking for any sign of them. So far they were having no luck.

Unknowing to them, behind a wall, seven figures were hiding.

Jak took a quick peek from behind the wall.

"They haven't found us yet." Jak whispered. "But they're getting closer to us.

"We could fight them off." Sherman suggested.

"And alert all the other robots to where we are?" Daxter asked.

"I think I have a better idea." Calvin said. "MTM, you said the precursor star is here. Do you know where it is precisely?"

"It's about inside the temple, around the bottom of it. But be aware there is some major flooding in the temple."

"I guess we should've bought scuba gear." Andy remarked.

"But how are we going to get past the robots?" Socrates asked.

"Well that's easy, one of us could serve as a distraction while the rest run into the temple entrance." Calvin said. "Who wants to be it?"

No one raised their hands.

"Anyone?" Calvin asked with still no reply. "Well then, I guess we'll wait for Sonic and friends and hope we aren't dead by the time they find us."

"I'll do it." Jak finally said. "I'll try to lead them away. After that I'll meet you at the temple entrance."

"Here's the time pauser." Calvin said giving Jak a yellow cylinder device. "I'm sure you can escape just fine with your Eco powers but use this in case of emergency."

Jak nodded. "Just wait for my signal."

He then pressed the red button on the cylinders and vanished.

"Wait, what's your signal?" Hobbes asked to where Jak once was.

A gunshot was then heard, and Calvin saw that eggman's robots were going in one direction.

"I guess that's the signal." Calvin said. "Now let's go."

With that the group ran from the wall with Hobbes grabbing Daxter along the way.

While they were running Calvin took a look back and saw a robot being thrown towards a wall, crackling with purple electricity.

Calvin, figuring Jak was holding them off somehow, continued to run to the front entrance.

When they reached the entrance, the watched the battle that was going on.

"You think Jak's doing well?" Sherman asked sounding concerned. "I mean he is facing off against an army of robots."

"Relax, he's probably doing fine." Daxter said sounding a bit more relaxed than Sherman. "Trust me, I know him well."

* * *

In the air, a red biplane was flying towards where Calvin's group was. The people on the plane were Tails who was piloting the plane, Sonic, who was standing on the middle part of the wing, Amy, Holding on the the left part of the wing, Ratchet, holding on the the right part of the wing and Clank, who was on Ratchet's back.

"Never thought I'd be seeing this place again." Sonic said looking down on the ruins.

"I'll take it you have bad memories here." Ratchet said.

"Let's just say I almost drowned here numerous times." Sonic said.

After finding a place to land, they began to search the area for any sign of their friends. After a while they saw a ship bearing Eggman's logo.

"I'm a bit confused." Clank said. "How are Eggman's robots here if from what we know, Eggman is locked up?"

"Well it appears Eggman put a code in so in case of his absence, his robots would be able to function without him." Tails explained.

"Then we better be careful." Ratchet said getting a weapon out.

They continued walking, and they came across some of Eggman's troops. More accurately the deactivated remains of Eggman's robots.

The robots had claw marks on it, and some looking like they were thrown against a wall, with some blaster fire on some of them.

"Look's like Jak managed to fight some of them." Sonic said examining the scene.

"But where are they now?" Amy asked.

"They're obviously not dead." Tails said. "Because I don't see their bodies."

"It's because we're right here." a voice said from behind them.

Everyone turned around and saw Jak, with Calvin, Hobbes and the rest behind him.

"I'll take it, you managed to defeat all the robots." Ratchet said observing the scene.

"Well, Jak was doing fine at first, but soon the robots began to overwhelm him and we had to step in." Calvin said. "Too bad you didn't see all that."

"It was amazing." Socrates said. "I managed to introduce the robots the wonders of custard pie."

"It's good to see you by the way." Hobbes said waving to them.

Amy then ran to Calvin and Hugged him.

"Okay." Calvin said surprised. "I wasn't expecting this."

"So." Sonic said approaching Hobbes. "What have you been doing since we last met?"

Hobbes explained what happened at Calvin's and Jak's universe with Calvin and Jak adding in some details. After they were done Ratchet told him what happened to his universe.

"Okay." Sonic said after the stories were finished. "If i'm understanding this, this Tenebris guy is invading our universes, and the only thing that can stop him is a group of artifacts, and we have one of them."

"That sums it up." Calvin said.

"And the next one is right here."

"Yep." Socrates said.

"And I can calibrate the MTM to sense a precursor star's energy." Calvin said as he modified the MTM. "So we should be able to find the star's easily."

"To put it simply right now." The MTM said. "We're going to need to go deeper into the temple."

"This should be fun." Sonic remarked. "The last time I was down there, there was a ton of water. I doubt that has changed."

"Well, I do have a oxygen mask." Ratchet said. "So that should make it easier. I'm also pretty sure I have a few spares, so I can have a few of you come with me if we come across a part that needs some underwater traveling."

"What are we waiting for then?" Daxter asked. "If Tenebris is taking over the universes, we don't have time to waste."

With that everyone descended into the temple.

* * *

Sonic certainly wasn't lying about the water in the temple. They weren't even inside for 5 minutes before they came across their first pool of water.

Calvin decided to test the water depth by getting a stick from the hypercube, and measuring it.

"Looks like this pool of water is shallow." Calvin said. "We should be able to walk through it."

As they slowly walked through the water, they noticed that it was getting darker, soon Calvin had to get a flashlight out.

Soon they found a pool of water that was too deep to walk through.

"Time to see who's going underwater with Ratchet." Daxter said.

"I'll go." Calvin said. "We need the MTM to find the Star."

"Are you sure it's a good idea to bring the MTM with you?" Sonic asked. "From my knowledge electronics and water usually don't mix."

"Relax, it's waterproof." Calvin said.

"Might as well go to." Sonic said. "I might be able to guide you through the temple."

Ratchet then gave the two oxygen masks and after putting them on they began to go into the water.

"See you later." Sonic said before he, Ratchet and Calvin went underwater.

The remaining heroes stared at where the three were.

"What are we supposed to do now?" Amy asked.

"I'll get the cards out." Hobbes said. "We might as well pass the time while they find that star."

* * *

 **Author's Note:** _Again sorry for the delay. You try writing a story with barely any set schedule other than the weekends, and have College at the same time with some other stuff going on, and you'll understand how I feel._

 _Hopefuly the next chapter won't take this long to come out. Make sure you review i'd like to hear some feedback on what you think so far._


	8. Submerged

Chapter 8. Submerged

Underwater, Sonic, Calvin, Ratchet and Clank were making their way through the waters of the temple. Because of Sonic's lack of swimming ability and Calvin's little expertise in swimming due to a bad experience when he took swimming lessons, they were essentially walking at the bottom.

The oxygen masks Ratchet had given them we're helpful as it allowed them be underwater almost indefinitely.

The MTM was guiding them through the hallways of the temple, following the quickest possible route to the precursor star..

"Okay, there is a fork in the hall. I recommend you take a right as the left is blocked." The MTM said.

"If you say so." Calvin said as the three took the path on the right.

However after a few steps they came across a dead end.

"Huh." The MTM said. "Could have sworn this was the right way?"

"Well it obviously isn't." Sonic said. "Any chance of trying the path on the left?"

"Probably. But the scanner says it's a dead end. Must be the water interfering with my tracking system."

"What?" Calvin asked annoyed. "I thought I was able to make you find anything no matter the conditions you're in."

"Well, I think the reason is you're using the precursor star tracker feature. Which you made on such short notice, so you didn't have time to iron out all the bugs and glitches that feature had."

"Oh thanks for the reminder." Calvin said rolling his eyes. "Let's just go the left hallway.

The three backtracked to the fork in the hallway and took a lift, which was not blocked.

* * *

Meanwhile back at the green hill zone, the umbra had arrived and were taking over the place while looking around for our heroes.

A hooded figure was walking around, looking as the umbra tore through the area. They had discovered the crashed aphelion and were searching the area, turning up nothing.

The hooded figure approached the aphelion and pressed various buttons.

"Replaying last call." The Aphelions AI said.

It began to replay the message that had played out in the last chapter. Underneath the hood the figure smiled.

He then spoke in an unknown language to the umbra's and he lifted off the ground. The umbra vanished and the black clouds began to expand.

* * *

Meanwhile back at the labyrinth zone, the heroes that stayed behind last chapter were playing cards, specifically poker.

Just then Hobbes looked up.

"What is it Hobbes?" Tails asked.

"Oh nothing." Hobbes replied. "I just feel like something evil's coming our way."

"We'll if it's Eggman's robots i'm not surprised." Jak said. "We destroyed some of their robots after all."

"Maybe." Andy said. "I'll raise you by a rock."

"I'll fold." Daxter said.

* * *

Back underwater, Ratchet, Calvin and Sonic were still struggling through the water. Throughout their journey they had to swim over various obstacles. Which was easier said than done when only one of the three heroes could swim well. Often Ratchet had to help Calvin and Sonic up.

"MTM how much further is this precursor star." Calvin asked.

"Well it's only a short walk away." The MTM explained.

"How short." Sonic asked.

"About half a mile from here."

Everyone groaned, and continued on. But a few minutes later they noticed a stream of bubbles.

"Guy's are you seeing this?" Ratchet asked looking around

"Yes we are." Calvin said. "It's a ton of small bubbles."

"Thank you for stating the obvious Calvin." Sonic said rolling his eyes. "But where is it coming from?"

"Look at the floor."

Everyone looked down and saw that there were a series of cracks. From them, various streams of bubbles were flying up.

"What does it mean?" Sonic asked.

"Well it usually means there must be an air pocket near." The MTM explained. "Or there's someone else here and is in the process of drowning. Either way I suggest you investigate."

Ratchet then placed small bomb on top of the cracks and the three went away from the blast. Which wasn't easy as they were underwater.

The bomb then blew up, causing the floor to give way and also sending bubbles of various sizes their way. Once the bubbles were cleared the three took a look down.

Thankfully, they found no one drowning but they did find a hallway underneath.

"So who want's to go under the unexplored tunnel." Sonic asked.

"Let's hope it's a path that leads us to the precursor star." Calvin said. "Because I don't want to walk a quarter mile."

"I would clarify, but the tracker isn't exactly past beta right now." The MTM said.

"I'll fix the bugs when we find the precursor star and out of this place MTM." Calvin said through gritted teeth.

"Let's just go down." Sonic said.

With that they descended down in the passage leading to paths unknown.

The hallway was dark, even moreso then the main temple. Thankfully Calvin had a flashlight installed in the MTM.

"Calvin I have something to ask you." Sonic said as they walked through the hallway.

"Sure what is it." Calvin replied.

"How did you even get to our Universe in the first place? Because the last time we met the MTM couldn't teleport us to another universe without a chaos emerald."

"Well during my maintenance of the MTM I found out it still had some spare chaos energy from the chaos emeralds when we destroyed the universe eater. Using that, I made some modifications to a universe transporter that I haven't really used since the time I got in a universe where everyone rhymed, and I could now teleport to any universe without a chaos emerald."

"Huh, well that explains it." Sonic said. "But if you had this feature, why didn't you visit any of the universes."

"Hey, I have a life to live you know." Calvin said. "And I did visit one of the universes, it was just so brief no one had a chance to see me."

Just then they reached a dead end.

"This can't be it." Sonic said. "Why would there be a hallway under the floor if it had a dead end?"

"Possible death trap?" Calvin remarked.

"Probably, but why hide it under a unbreakable floor?"

As Sonic and Calvin were talking Ratchet looked up and saw an opening on the ceiling.

"We could always try that hole in the ceiling." Ratchet said pointing up at hole.

"Huh, it wasn't a death trap." Calvin said.

"Don't jinx us." Sonic said.

Ratchet managed to get up through the hole pretty easily, but Calvin and Sonic had a bit more difficulty. Sonic had to leap up a few times and Calvin had to use the MTM's manipulator arms to lift himself out of the water.

Eventually they got out and found that despite most of the temple being flooded. The room was nice and dry.

They took off their oxygen masks, and took a look around.

"MTM where are we in this temple?"

"Well it looks like you're in some kind of shrine room." The MTM said. "And conveniently, that detour we took managed to get us right near the Precursor star."

"Okay that's nice." Calvin said. "But where's the precursor star?"

"Well it's in this room somewhere." Clank said. "We just need to search for it."

"And Judging from the size of the room. It probably shouldn't take long." Ratchet said looking around the room.

Indeed it was small area. The hole they came out off was in the corner of the room. The rest of the walls were just short walks away.

"Well then." Calvin said. "We better get started."

And so they started to look around the room. This being a temple however, there were naturally parts of the room that had piles of debris, which made things difficult.

Calvin was walking along the room, using the MTM to try and guide him to the precursor stars signature, while Ratchet, Clank and Sonic were looking around and checking under rubble to see if the precursor star was there.

After a few minutes of walking around. The MTM started to beep. Signaling that he was close to the precursor star.

As he walked forward the beeping got quicker and it lead him, to his disappointment, a pile of large rubble.

"MTM, you said the precursor star's signature was here." Calvin said observing the rubble.

"Yes I did." The MTM said.

"Then why do I see only rubble?"

"Well there is a room behind that rubble and the precursor star is in there."

"Okay, how do we get in here."

"Well we could blow the rubble. But judging from the structure of the temple, we might just bury ourselves."

"So i'm guessing using my bombs are out of the question." Ratchet said, now joining Calvin at looking at the barrier. "Any other ways?"

"Well there is a piece of loose rubble that can be lifted." The MTM explained and everyone looked at a large pillar that blocked a majority of the door. "But you need some heavy lifting to do that."

Everyone looked at each other, knowing they couldn't lift the rubble.

"Guess you should gone a few rounds at the gym." The MTM remarked.

"No, I think we can manage it." Ratchet said.

"How?" Sonic asked. "None of us can lift the rubble."

"I'm not saying one of us do it. I'm saying that maybe we can use something to lift the rubble up, and judging by the size of the rubble, we might not make an opening wide enough for one of us to get through so one of us could crawl under and grab the precursor star."

"Something like your wrench." Calvin said. "Maybe you can use it to lift the rubble up."

"But who's going to crawl under?" Sonic asked.

"You could send me." Clank said.

"That's probably a good idea." Sonic said. "Clank's the smallest one here and he could potentially fit under the gap."

"Okay now that we have a plan, let's execute it." Calvin said clapping his hands together.

Ratchet got his wrench out and began to wedge it between the rubble. After much difficulty he managed to get it in a good position. However the real challenge began when he tried to lift it.

It was obviously heavy and Ratchet was barely able to lift it even a centimeter.

"Well I did warn you." The MTM said.

"Sonic, can you help me please." Ratchet said as he tried to use the wrench to lift the pillar.

Sonic then grabbed the wrench and started lifting with Ratchet. It helped a bit, but it was not enough. So Calvin decided to help.

Amazingly, they managed to make a gap large enough for Clank to crawl through.

"Just make sure you keep the gap open." Clank said.

"Thanks Clank." Calvin said through gritted teeth, already feeling the weight of the pillar. "Can you make it fast."

Clank managed to get through the pillar and started looking for the precursor star.

If you're wondering how Clank would find a precursor star if he doesn't know what it looks like. He was shown the precursor star before our heroes entered the temple.

Clank began to search quickly. Knowing that Ratchet, Sonic and Calvin couldn't keep the pillar up for much longer.

Within a few seconds he saw a eight pointed star with the precursor language on it. Figuring out it was a precursor star, he quickly grabbed it.

"Clank, have you found the precursor star?" Calvin called out.

"Yes I have." Clank replied.

"Well then hurry up back here, we can't keep this up much longer."

Clank began to run to the gap and crawled through it. By then the three holding the wrench were beginning to lose their strength from keeping up the pillar and it was beginning to lower.

Clank crawled faster and barely managed to get to the other side before the three couldn't hold the pillar up anymore and had to let go. The pillar came down with a gigantic thud.

The three took a moment to catch their breath.

"Did you get the precursor star?" Calvin asked Clank.

Clank showed them the precursor star.

"Okay now let's get out of…" Sonic said before they felt rumbling.

They noticed falling rocks coming down from the ceiling.

"I presume you were going to say let's get out of here." Calvin said.

Sonic nodded and all of the four dived into the water with Clank on Ratchets back.

* * *

Back at the temple entrance the rest of the heroes had finished up their poker game.

"I don't believe it." Hobbes said in shock.

If you're wondering what went on in the poker game. By now it was down to two people, Hobbes and Daxter. And Daxter and just beaten Hobbes.

"Well, looks like I get the rest of the rocks." Daxter said proudly.

Just then they felt the ground rumble.

"What was that?" Tails asked.

A rock then landed in front of them. Soon more rocks began to rain down in various sizes.

"I think the temple is about to collapse." Andy said.

"Let's just hope Calvin, Sonic and Ratchet got the star." Jak said.

Just then Calvin, Sonic, Ratchet and Clank emerged from the pool of water, with the former 3 out of breath.

"You got the star right?" Amy asked the three.

Calvin showed them the star as proof.

"Now let's get out of here." Calvin said.

Everyone began to make a run for the entrance. As they did the temple began to fall apart, with them nearly avoiding getting crushed by rocks.

They managed to get out of the temple just before the entrance became blocked by rocks. Everyone took a moment to catch their breath.

"Well I guess we aren't going back in there anytime soon." Tails said.

"All the better for it." Calvin said. "I think i've seen enough of this place to last a lifetime."

"We're at least out of danger now." Socrates said.

Ratchet had recovered was looking around and noticed that it seemed a bit darker then when they went into the temple. He looked up and his eye widened.

The sky was completely black.

"Uh guys." Ratchet said pointing to the sky. "We might not be out of the woods yet."

Everyone looked and stared in horror. Especially with Jak, Daxter, Clank, Calvin, Hobbes, Andy, Sherman and Socrates.

They then looked ahead and saw the hooded figure standing and staring at them.

Jak fired his blaster at the hooded figure, who simply lifted his hand up and stopped the shot and letting it fall harmlessly to the ground.

"Okay that's not good." Daxter said.

The hooded figure then raised his arms and black tendrils began to emanate from his fingers. The tendrils headed towards the robots and they began to reactivate, however some of their lost parts began to regenerate as a black, gooey like substance. With the hands ending in claws.

The umbra infected robots then began to shamble towards our heroes. Jak did his best to hold them off using his blaster, as did Ratchet with his weapons and Calvin with his inventions. Sonic used his speed and Amy used her hammer.

However in the midst of them fighting the reactivated robots, more umbra began to go towards them.

Calvin knew they couldn't fight them all and got out the MTM.

"MTM, we need you now." Calvin said in a panicked voice.

"I kind of noticed." The MTM said. "What do you want me to do? Activate protocol 156?

"NO!" Calvin yelled. "I need you to teleport us out of here."

"Of course." The MTM said. "Beginning teleporting."

However as the MTM began to activate it's teleporter. The hooded figure fired a sphere of electricity, and it hit our heroes, separating them in 2 groups.

The MTM then said. "Error, original group divided, diverting second group to next nearest location of precursor star."

Calvin's eyes widened. "MTM cancel the…."

But it was too late and the groups were teleported to parts unknown.

The hooded figure scowled from under the hood and vanished into thin air.

* * *

 **Authors Note:** _Mwahahaha Cliffhanger. Apologies for the delay in posting the chapter. This time laziness wasn't the cause, it just took me a bit longer to write the chapter._

 _Anyway to give you a hint on where the two groups are going. One will go to a universe they know, the other will go to a new universe. See what they are next chapter._


	9. A New Universe

**Author's Note:** _This week I decided to give you two chapters instead of one to make up for being a few days late for last weeks chapter._

* * *

Chapter 9. A New Universe.

Andy began to stir. To his amazement he was back home in his bed.

He looked around, everything seemed normal, the last thing he remembered before being knocked out was being surrounded by black shadowy creatures known as umbra and that characters from video games were holding them off.

Maybe that had all been a dream. Andy thought as he got out of bed and got dressed.

He rubbed his head. He didn't know why but his head seemed to hurt. He remembered that he got hit when a hooded figure threw some kind of orb at him, but if it was a dream it shouldn't have affected him

He went to check on Sherman, who was still sleeping.

Deciding to go have breakfast he made his way downstairs, put some waffles in the toaster and got out a comic book while he waited.

Just then he heard a knock at the door.

He turned and went to go answer it. To his surprise it was Socrates, looking rather worried.

"Hello Socrates." Andy said. "What brings you here this early in the morning."

"I can't seem to find Calvin and Hobbes." Socrates said sounding slightly panicked.

"Did you check their home?" Andy asked calmly.

"Why would I check their home if we aren't even in our own universe?" Socrates asked.

Andy stared at him perplexed.

"Uh, Socrates, are you sure this isn't some prank?" Andy asked now a bit confused. "Because last I checked we live here."

"Is Sherman with you?" Socrates asked.

"I saw him in my room. He's still sleeping."

"Are you sure? Because I don't see him anywhere."

"Socrates what is wrong with you?"

"There's nothing wrong with me, aside from the fact that some of our friends are missing."

"Look i'll bring Sherman to you to show I still have him."

Andy then went upstairs and into his room to check on Sherman. Except he was gone.

"What the?" Andy exclaimed.

He then looked out the window, but it no longer showed the early rays of sunshine but black skies instead.

He then turned and saw that Socrates was now in his room with him.

"Socrates, What is going on?"

"You need to wake up Andy." Socrates said grabbing him by his shoulders and shaking him.

"Socrates, stop shaking me." Andy said.

However instead of his bedroom, he now was in a field of rocks, sitting against a boulder.

He looked around and saw that Ratchet, Clank, Sonic and Amy were walking. As if they were looking for something.

So it wasn't a dream. Andy thought.

He turned around and saw Socrates staring him in the face.

"Ah good you're awake." Socrates said, now in his usual tone of voice. "For a moment I thought that teleport messed your mind up."

"Thanks for the concern." Andy muttered. "Now where are we, and where's Calvin, Hobbes, Sherman and the others?"

"Well when we woke up we didn't see them. Not to mention Jak, Daxter and Tails were all missing as well. Didn't you hear me when I was trying to wake you up"

"Can't we just teleport them with the MTM."

"A good idea with a slight problem. The MTM was with Calvin when we teleported."

"And?"

"And we don't know where he is."

"Oh."

By then, the others had finished searching and were grouping up to debate on what to do next.

"What are we going to do?" Amy asked. "Calvin's MTM was the only way we could locate the precursor stars and now that we don't know he and the others are, we have no chance."

"Look Amy just calm down." Sonic said. "Calvin could teleport here any minute, he wouldn't leave us behind after all."

"Then why hasn't he teleported yet?" Ratchet asked.

"Well Calvin did take a pretty big blast, and it could have damaged the MTM in the process." Clank said. "But that's just a theory."

"Besides before we teleported, The MTM said it was teleporting us to the next precursor star location, so it must be here." Andy said.

"So let's sum up the situation so far." Ratchet said. "Our universes have been taken over by someone called Tenebris, we're stuck on a planet which i'm guessing is probably from my universe, Calvin, Hobbes, Jak, Daxter, Tails and Sherman are who knows where, and the only way to locate the things that can apparently stop Tenebris is with Calvin."

"I think that sums it up nicely." Sonic said.

"Let's not worry about it now." Andy said. "I know Calvin and Hobbes well, they can take care of themselves. Let's focus on finding that star."

"We're probably going to need to do some detective work." Ratchet said. "Any ideas?"

"We could try going to that camp there." Socrates said pointing to the left.

Everyone looked to where Socrates was pointing.

It was indeed a camp. it had various tents, but it also had some small buildings in some places.

"We might as well start there." Ratchet said. "Might give us a scope on what planet this is."

Socrates then clapped his hands together. "What are we waiting for people? Allonsy."

He then ran towards the camp.

"Is he usually like this?" Amy asked Andy.

"Pretty much." Andy replied. "His reaction to finding out his house was haunted was to watch tv."

"I see." Clank said. "Keep in mind we're on a unknown planet where we don't know who's friend or foe and most likely taken over by Umbra."

With that thought on their minds, they ran towards the camp.

* * *

Hobbes began to wake up. He found himself in the middle of an empty street in an alley.

Groaning he slowly got up, stretching as he did. He looked around and saw that Calvin was lying unconscious as well, holding the MTM in his hand.

Deciding to wake him up, he decided to shake him a bit. That didn't work as Calvin was still out cold. So Hobbes shook him harder, still didn't work.

Deciding to resort to desperate measures he brought Calvin close to him and yelled these words.

"CALVIN WAKE UP!"

That did the trick as Calvin's eyes suddenly snapped open.

"Ahhhh, Zok is coming for my Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs." Calvin said.

He then looked at Hobbes.

"Oh, it's you."

"Nice to see you alive." Hobbes said rolling his eyes.

"You too, but where is everyone."

Just then, Calvin felt something under his shirt. Confused Calvin reached under it and to his surprise, pulled out Daxter, apparently disoriented from the teleportation.

Hobbes took a look around and saw that Jak was slowly getting up, Tails was rubbing his head, and Sherman had somehow ended up inside a bowl.

Once everyone had regained their bearings. They started to look around the place.

"Where are we?" Jak asked.

"I'm not exactly sure." Tails said. "All I know is that I don't recognize anything from the universes we've been to."

"Now Now, there's a simple solution to that." Calvin said calmly while pulling out the MTM. "MTM where are we?"

Unfortunately all they got was a bunch of static and garbled speech.

Calvin frowned. "MTM, teleport us to our friends."

A sphere of electricity formed, but it quickly faded.

"Okay, scratch that. We have no solution to this problem right now."

"Well that's just great." Hobbes said. "We're trapped in a unknown universe, the MTM is damaged, the others could be in mortal danger and there's no way of getting back to them."

"Calm down everyone." Jak said. "Let's just figure out where we are right now. The MTM wouldn't teleport us here without a reason would it."

"Your right." Sherman said. "I dimly recall that The MTM diverted the course of one group and teleported them to the next precursor star. So it's probably here somewhere."

"Can we just get out of this back alley already?" Daxter asked. "I feel like we're about to encounter a group of thugs at any second."

"Yes that does sound like a good idea." Hobbes said

Everyone then left the alley and entered the streets of the unknown place.

Now that they were in a wider area, everyone started to look at their surroundings.

Just then, Hobbes noticed something.

"Look over there."

Everyone turned and saw a familiar structure in the distance. Well familiar to Calvin, Hobbes and Sherman.

"It's the Eiffel Tower." Sherman said in awe.

"Well this isn't bad." Calvin said smiling. "Always wanted to visit Paris."

"To be honest, even if we're stuck here for the rest of our lives, we at least have a nice view." Hobbes said.

"But that doesn't really narrow down what universe we are in." Tails said. "For all we know we could've teleported back to Calvin's universe."

"Probably not." Sherman said. "Because if this was our universe we should have seen an umbra by now. Plus the skies aren't completely black."

Sherman was right. Instead of the pure black skies, there was a night sky.

"I guess the only thing we can do now is ask someone who lives here." Jak said.

"Agreed." Hobbes said.

So they began to walk around town trying to look for people. That was easier said than done because the streets were empty.

They walked for what seamed like hours when they came upon a house. The house seemed to be old, with parts of the paint peeling off, and some of the wood worn down.

Despite the fact that they needed to find someone who knew the universe, the group stared at the house.

"Why are we even staring at this house?" Daxter asked. "And why do I have the urge to go in and investigate."

"You're not the only one." Calvin said, curious of the house as well.

"Look maybe we can stay in it til morning." Jak said. "We've had a long day today and we need some rest."

"Agreed." Sherman said.

They managed to get over the fence easily enough but the real challenge came to the door. Expecting it to be open they found that it was locked.

"Huh." Calvin said. "Didn't expect this. Hobbes if you would please."

Hobbes nodded, got out a claw and put it in the keyhole.

After a few seconds the door unlocked and the group entered the home.

* * *

The inside of the house was just as worn as the outside with wallpaper being torn in places and some of the floor being rough as if it wasn't sanded in a long time.

"Woah." Hobbes said. "Someone needs to fire their maintenance guy."

"Did the ruined exterior not give it away?" Sherman asked.

"Let's just find a place to sleep." Tails said.

Calvin then got out his hypercube and pulled out several two way radios. "This place looks pretty big and we should cover more ground if we split up. Use the radio if you find anything interesting or find a place to sleep."

Everyone nodded and split up. Jak and Daxter going left, Calvin and Hobbes going to the right and Tails and Sherman going up the stairs.

* * *

Calvin and Hobbes slowly made their way through the house. Calvin had gotten a flashlight out and was taking in the sights.

"I'm worried about the others you know." Hobbes said as they walked down the hallway. "What if they were left behind back in Sonic's universe?"

"They're probably fine." Calvin said. "Ratchet probably held the Umbra off while they escaped given the enormous amount of weapons he has."

"Good point. But did you see the size of that army? And we know that if you beat one umbra, another absorbs its remains and becomes even more powerful."

"I just wish the MTM was working right now." Calvin said. "He could have told us if the others were alright and teleported them to us."

It was true what Calvin said. The hooded figure not only damaged the voice chip of the MTM, it also disabled the teleportation feature, the self repair feature and the projector feature.

Just then they heard a creak from upstairs. Causing the two to pause and look up

"It's just an old house." Hobbes said to reassure himself.

"Or it could be Tails exploring the upstairs." Calvin said. "Let's keep moving."

With that the two continued through the house.

* * *

Calvin was right. Tails was exploring the upstairs with Sherman on his shoulder. The first thing they noticed when they got upstairs was it had tracks from presumably a wheelchair.

"That's odd." Sherman said. "If someone living in a wheelchair was living here, we should have seen some kind of stair ramp to get them up here."

"Well maybe the reason there isn't one of those is that the person doesn't live here anymore." Tails pointed out.

After about a minute of exploring they entered a room. Inside was a couch that looked like it seen better days, a television that was showing nothing but static and a balcony with it's door left wide open.

Tails went to a table and picked up a photograph that was lying there.

It was slightly faded and worn but he and Sherman could still see the photo itself. It contained a raccoon wearing a blue shirt and shoes, a bandit mask, a flat cap that was also blue and appeared to be holding a golden kane. On his right was a turtle sitting in a wheelchair wearing glasses and what appeared to be a safari cap. On the left was a pink hippo wearing a light blue shirt, goggles and a red cap and gloves.

"Who are these guys?" Tails asked.

"I'm guessing these are the previous owners." Sherman said. "Would explain the wheelchair tracks."

"I think we may have found out more about this universe." Tails said putting the photograph away.

"That's true." Sherman said. "A picture can tell you some things."

"That apparently this universe is inhabited by walking animals." Tails said. "Let's just keep looking around."

With that they exited the room and continued looking around.

* * *

Back downstairs, Jak and Daxter were in what appeared to a living room, complete with a rug, bookshelf, and comfy chairs.

"This could be a good place to sleep." Daxter said.

"Well we haven't heard from the others." Jak said. "So I might as well call them."

As Jak got out the radio, Daxter got curious about the books on the bookshelf and went over to it.

Daxter observed the books, they seemed to be all books about science, inventing, and thieves.

Curious he pulled one out. Doing so however caused the shelf to move, causing Daxter to lose his balance and land on the floor.

Jak, heading the thud looked around and saw that the shelf had been hiding a secret passage.

He stared at it for about a minute in complete silence.

Meanwhile Calvin, the person Jak was communicating with, became concerned.

"Jak, are you there? You were saying something about finding a place to sleep."

Jak finally responded. "You might want to come down here."

After about a minute everyone was in the living room.

"So." Hobbes asked. "Who want's to go in the unknown secret passage?"

Calvin, Jak, Tails and Sherman raised their hands.

"Of course." Hobbes muttered rolling his eyes.

With that everyone descended into the hallway.

They found that they were going down on what seemed like a ramp. Soon they came across a door which they opened.

What they found amazed them. It was a laboratory with white walls and floors, had tables of beakers with various chemicals in them, with shelves filled with books.

"Holy cow!" Sherman exclaimed. "This makes my lab look like the one at the university."

"Looks like a scientist's version of the batcave." Calvin remarked. "Let's look around."

Everyone stepped into the lab and began to look around.

While looking, Hobbes picked up a notebook and began flipping through it. In it contained various blueprints and notes. Some were notes on experiments, the others were blueprints for some kind of crossbow, and various types of darts. Some that blew up on contact, and some that made you shrink.

"Huh. Looks like he probably would have gotten along with Sherman or Calvin." Hobbes said.

"Hobbes, look at this." Tails said.

Hobbes put the notebook down and turned around.

He saw that Tails was staring at what appeared to be a vault. It appeared to be very secure as it had a keypad, a handprint scanner and a retina scanner.

"Looks like someone doesn't want to let anyone else in there." Hobbes said.

"But why would it be here?" Tails asked. "Why put all those security measures and probably more in this vault."

"Maybe whoever lived here had secret projects he didn't want anyone to see." Hobbes said.

Just then they heard a thud.

"What was that?" Sherman asked in alarm.

"I don't know. I just hope it wasn't Calvin or Daxter knocking over something with dangerous chemicals in them." Hobbes said.

They ran down and saw that behind one of the tables, Calvin, Jak and Daxter were lying on the floor, with darts sticking out of them.

"Oh dear." Tails said worried.

Hobbes quickly went over to Jak and nudged him slightly causing Jak to moan."

"Well they're not dead." Hobbes said. "They look like they're asleep."

"But how did that happen?" Sherman asked.

"Some kind of trap one of them accidently activated maybe." Hobbes said.

"But I don't see anything that those dart's could have fired from." Tails said.

"Well maybe they're hidden."

Suddenly, they all felt a prick on the back of their necks and immediately began to feel drowsy.

Hobbes pulled the dart from his neck and looked at it. It was the same kind of dart that put the others to sleep.

"Oh not again." Hobbes muttered before losing consciousness.

* * *

The MTM wasn't having the best of days. It had endured a crash landing, suffered some slight water damage, got hit by a ball of energy that scrambled it's systems and found out that it was behind on its television payments.

Now it had tried to tell Calvin what universe they were in. The problem was that the voice chip was damaged and its words came out as gibberish. However while it couldn't see, it could still hear and right now it was hearing a voice that didn't sound like Calvin, Hobbes, or any of the others.

"Hmm interesting." The voice said. "This CD player looks like a normal one on the surface but inside it's almost advanced."

The MTM didn't know who was speaking, but it noticed that it was getting better, it was regaining its optical sensors and some other stuff.

Right now all it could see was white but it was slowly coming clearer.

"It also has a startling amount of features, A storage device that can hold anything of any size, a teleporter, a laser and most amazingly time travel."

By then the MTM's vision was back and it found itself on a desk with various papers, a laptop computer, some pencils and various tools such as a screwdriver.

Looking down on him was a turtle wearing glasses and a safari hat, sitting in a wheelchair.

"We can finally find him and bring him back to the present." The turtle said with happiness.

The MTM decided to ask the obvious question.

"Who are you?"

* * *

 **Authors Note:** _No i'm not going to tell you what universe this is or who that was right now. You'll have to wait until the next chapter to find out, or you might have figured it out so congratulations._


	10. Time Travel and Research Camps

Chapter 10. Time Travel and Research Camps.

Ratchet, Andy, Clank, Sonic and Amy had managed to catch up to Socrates and had made it to the camp. Now that they were in the camp they saw that the tents were ruined, random pieces of equipment were scattered and there were bodies scattered everywhere.

"Woah." Andy said. "Whoever was here really left in a hurry."

"Well they were being attacked so you can't blame them." Ratchet said.

As they walked around, Ratchet went to one of the bodies and picked up what looked like a datapad from it's hand and observed it.

 _Log Entry 0028: WE'RE UNDER ATTACK, NO ONE KNOWS WHAT'S GOING ON! IT STARTED WHEN THE SKIES TURNED BLACK AND SUDDENLY THESE CREATURES SHOW UP AND START TEARING UP THE PLACE! SOME HAVE BEEN EVACUATED! IF ANYONE FINDS THIS IT'S TOO LATE TO SAVE US!_

Ratchet switched to another entry of the journal.

 _Log Entry 0027: The excavation crew found some kind of artifact in the rock. It was described as a star shaped object with symbols on it, usual stuff. Also, I need to tell Clarance to tone down the scary noises. It's lowering morale._

Ratchet went back all the way to the first entry.

 _Log Entry 0001: Well, today's our first day here. People are already setting up tents and buildings. Don't know why, the CEO says we're only going to be there for about a year, so why put buildings here. My guess would be that in case they want to come back here, they could just reuse the buildings. Anyway Dale's calling to me, telling me to get back to work no doubt._

"Well that solves one mystery." Ratchet said putting the datapad away.

"What is it?" Sonic asked.

"This area was apparently a dig site for artifacts." Ratchet explained. "And they might have found a precursor star."

"Well what are we waiting for?" Andy asked. "Let's find it."

"Wait a minute." Clank said holding his hand up. "We don't know where the precursor star is. I suggest investigating more of this place and see where it is."

"That's probably a good idea." Sonic said. "Any suggestions on where to start?"

"Maybe that building over there." Amy said pointing to one of the buildings.

"Good idea." Socrates said.

They approached the building and tried to open the door, unfortunately it was locked.

"Hold on." Ratchet said getting in front of them. "This should take a minute."

Ratchet got out a tool and after a minute there was a click and the door opened.

"Well." Ratchet said turning to the others. "Let's go in."

* * *

Calvin began to wake up. The last thing he remembered was observing one of the chemicals in the secret lab, then suddenly he felt prick in his neck and fell asleep.

He looked around, he was inside a bathroom with no windows and one door. To his relief the others were with him and were also waking up.

"What happened?" Jak asked confused as he looked around.

"Isn't it obvious?" Sherman said. "We got put to sleep by someone or something and put in this bathroom."

Tails went to the door and tried to open it.

"It's locked." he said

"Already i'm having flashbacks to when the time Socrates mansion was haunted." Hobbes said.

"Relax people." Calvin said. "We have the MTM, I can just zap the door and it's unlocked."

Calvin reached into his pocket and to his surprise, The MTM wasn't there.

"They took my MTM?!" Calvin said in shock. "How could they do this?"

"Hey they took away my weapons as well." Jak said. "Probably so they can't make escaping this room easy."

Sherman suddenly interjected "I have a solution for the door problem, just get me to crawl under the gap in the door and I can unlock it."

After a moment of thought Calvin answered.

"Okay." Calvin said. "But be careful. Whoever put us in here might be outside."

Sherman nodded and squeezed through the door.

"Sorry for asking the obvious question but how do you expect him to get up to the lock?" Daxter asked.

"Well he managed to get me and some our friends out a locked bedroom when we had to deal with a haunted mansion." Hobbes said. "We should have no problem here."

After about a few minutes they heard a click and the door opened. Sherman was hanging on to the doorknob.

Don't ask me how he had the strength to do that.

Everyone got out, with Tails grabbing Sherman.

"Okay." Calvin whispered. "We need to get the MTM back. Remember someone is most likely home so be quiet."

Everyone nodded and began to walk slowly.

As they descended down the stairs, careful not to make a creaking sound, they began to hear a voice.

"So you want me to help locate your friend who is somewhere in time?"

"That's the MTM's voice." Hobbes whispered.

"Yeah, but who is it speaking to?" Sherman said.

"Let's just be quiet and listen." Jak said.

"That's correct." another voice said, this one they didn't recognize.

"Sorry mate, but I have a few conditions if i'm going to do that."

"Such as?"

As the MTM began to explain its conditions to whoever it was speaking to. Calvin and the others slowly approached the door. Jak grabbed a coat hanger and Calvin pulled the transmogrifier gun from his hair.

Hobbes stared at it. "You mean you had that thing all along? Why didn't you you use it when we had to escape the bathroom?"

"And not give Sherman a thing to do?" Calvin whispered, raising an eyebrow.

"Thanks for thinking of me." Sherman said

They approached the door, with Calvin putting his hand on the doorknob.

He turned to the others and held up his three fingers and counted them down. As he did the MTM continued speaking.

"For more details on any of these you need to ask Calvin."

"ATTACK!" he yelled as he opened the door.

Everyone ran into the room, and promptly stopped.

Inside they found a turtle wearing a safari hat, glasses and was in a wheelchair. They also found a tall, muscular pink hippo, wearing a light blue shirt, red cap and gloves, and goggles.

They both turned and saw the group. Calvin aimed his transmogrifier gun at them, and Jak gripped the coat hanger like a baseball bat.

"Oh there he is." The MTM said. "I'll leave the talking to you."

Calvin turned the transmogrifier gun at the turtle. "Give us the CD player."

"Wait." the hippo said putting his hands up. "We can explain."

"Explain?" Daxter said angrily. "You put us to sleep, took away our stuff and locked us in a room. And you expect us to listen to what you have to say?"

"Look, I didn't know you weren't intruders." the turtle said. "If we did, we would have thrown you out of the house."

Just then Tails and Sherman hit a realization.

"You're the owners of this house. Aren't you." Tails said quietly.

There was a brief pause as the two groups stared at each other.

"Yes that is correct." the turtle said.

"That doesn't explain why you took the MTM." Calvin said still aiming the transmogrifier gun at the two. "To you it looked like a CD player. Why would you take it in the first place?"

"When we were putting you in the bathroom, I heard static coming from the CD player, we thought it was still playing music. But when I opened it, I found that there was stuff that seemed way too advanced to be in a CD player. So I repaired it and found that not only it could talk, but do things such as time travel and store an infinite amount of objects."

"Yep that's the MTM for you." Hobbes said. "A mechanical swiss army knife."

Calvin was now a bit confused. "So you repaired the MTM for me?"

"Yep." the turtle said. "Wasn't easy, but I managed."

"Just lower your weapons and we can explain our situation." the hippo said.

Reluctantly Calvin put the transmogrifier gun away. Jak dropped the coat hanger on the floor.

"We didn't really introduce ourselves." The turtle said. "I'm Bentley, and this is Murray."

Bentley pointed to the pink hippo who waved to them.

"My names Calvin." Calvin said and he motioned to the others. "And this is my tiger Hobbes and my friends Jak, Daxter, Tails and Sherman."

"Nice to meet you." Bentley said. "Now allow us to explain our situation. It started a few months ago..."

* * *

Meanwhile in Ratchets universe. The group had entered the building and were now looking around.

It wasn't as damaged as they expected. But it wasn't clean either as broken glass and paper were scattered on the floor.

Andy picked up some of the papers and went through them. On the notes was the information of several artifacts, the most recent one seemed to be on the star shaped object.

"Guys look at this." Andy said.

"What is it?" Sonic asked.

"I've been reading these notes, and judging by the most recent one, the people here might have found a precursor star."

"Might?" Clank said.

"Well it has a pretty good description of one." Andy explained checking the notes. "A six point star shape, reddish brown color and symbols that judging from the drawings is probably the symbols from Jak's universe."

"But did they find it?" Ratchet asked. "If they found it why didn't they bring it here."

"Well they couldn't exactly remove it from the rock it was apparently in. As for where it is, its about 100 miles east from here."

"We can't walk 100 miles obviously." Socrates said.

"I might be able to get there quickly considering my speed." Sonic said. "But that would probably be an unfair advantage."

"Well you could try picking one of us up, run to where they found the star, running back here and grabbing another." Ratchet suggested.

Before Sonic could speak they heard something

 _ **THUMP THUMP THUMP.**_

"What was that?" Amy asked.

"I don't know." Andy said. "Maybe it's a umbra."

They heard the noise again.

 _ **THUMP THUMP THUMP.**_

"Should we go check?" Sonic asked.

"Wait." Socrates said. "Don't you know if there is a noise and you don't know what's causing it, it could be someone trying to kill you?"

Everyone stared at Socrates for a long moment.

"You do realize we have ways of defending ourselves." Ratchet said showing his wrench.

"Oh." Socrates said. "Well then we might as well investigate."

 _ **THUMP THUMP THUMP.**_

Everyone stared at a locker. Which they presumed was making the noise.

Slowly they approached it and when they were close enough, Sonic reached for the handle that would open the locker.

Before opening it though he looked at the others.

Ratchet had his wrench out, Amy had her Hammer, Andy got a piece of wood that had once belonged to a chair and Socrates had a rubber chicken.

Don't ask about the last one.

Reassured that everyone was prepared Sonic opened the locker.

It happened almost immediately

"DON'T TOUCH ME!"

A figure came out, swinging a pole wildly at the group.

Now a moment to describe the figure. He was a rather short fellow who was wearing a lab coat, had blueish skin as if he held his breath for too long, his head was round in shape however he had grey metal and a green cybernetic eye on the right side of his face. He also had an arm that was also robotic.

"Woah, calm down." Ratchet said putting his hands up.

Almost immediately the figure stopped swinging when he saw what was in front of him.

There was a long pause as he processed the people in front of him.

Finally he spoke. "You're not one of them are you?"

"Obviously. Do we look like evil dark creatures that are out to attack you?" Andy said.

The man flinched when Andy indirectly mentioned the umbra.

"Sorry." Andy said almost immediately. "Didn't mean to alarm you."

"You've seen them too?" the figure said.

Everyone nodded.

"Okay, enough with the cryptic talking." Sonic said. "We have a few questions for you. First off, Who are you?"

"My name is Garrick." the figure said. "I'm one of the people sent here to search for artifacts on this rock."

"Okay Garrick." Ratchet said. "Tell us what happened here."

"Well I don't know." Garrick said nervously. "A couple of days ago we uncovered an artifact, however we couldn't remove it, so we called in some tools to remove it. The next day the skies turned black. We at first thought it was the weather, when suddenly these black creatures came and started attacking us. I managed to escape and lock myself in here."

Garrick shuddered. "I can still hear the screams of my companions."

"Was the artifact in the shape of a star?" Amy asked.

Garrick looked up. "How do you know that? You're not a rival corporation sent to wipe out survivors are you?"

"No we aren't." Sonic said, slightly annoyed. "In fact we just arrived here."

"To answer your other question, we found out about that with these notes." Andy said showing him the notes.

Garrick stared at him for a moment before responding. "Yes, it was something like that."

"We need to get there." Clank explained. "Do you have any mode of transportation?"

Garrick nodded. "There's a hovercraft outside, but you need a key to activate it."

"Do you have one?" Sonic asked.

"Yes." Garrick said as he dug through his pockets before finally getting a blue keycard.

"Wow cards as keys." Socrates said grabbing the keycard. "Wonder what they'll think of next? Fingerprint scanning."

"Use this card to activate the vehicle." Garrick explained. "It should be next to the last tent on the right."

"Thanks." Ratchet said. "What about you?"

"I'm gonna stay here." Garrick said looking out a window. "I managed to survive this long here. I can survive a few more days."

However as Garrick was talking, Socrates noticed something outside.

White eye's were peering at them.

"Um guys." Socrates said pointing to the window. "I think the umbra found us."

Everyone looked and their eyes widened. There wasn't just one pair of pure white eyes, there were many.

And they saw hands reaching for Garrick.

"Why is everyone staring at me?" Garrick said nervously.

"GARRICK, LOOK OUT!" Ratchet yelled.

The glass broke and the hands grabbed Garrick, who promptly screamed as he was pulled outside.

The screaming kept going as the umbra began crawling through.

"Guys." Andy said terrified. "What do we do?"

* * *

Back to Calvin's group. Bentley had finished telling his story.

"Okay to sum it up. Your friend and teammate known as Sly Cooper, got trapped on a time traveling blimp that crashed." Jak said processing the story.

"Correct."

"You didn't find a body so you presumed he traveled to the past."

"Yes."

"And you've been spending the last three months looking for clues to what time period he might be in."

"That's right."

"So that's why you need the MTM." Hobbes said. "Because of it's ability to locate any person no matter the time period you can find your friend and bring him back home."

"That's right." Murray said.

"Alright." Calvin said stepping forward. "We'll find your friend, just give me the MTM and I can locate your friend in about a minute."

"Before you do, I want to know something." Bentley said. "You're obviously not from around here."

Calvin looked at the others. "Yes, you guessed correctly."

"Where are you from?"

Calvin shifted nervously. "You're probably not going to believe us but…"

Calvin took a quick look at Hobbes before finishing his sentence.

"Me and my friends are from different universes."

There was a long pause between the two as they thought of what was spoken.

Finally Murray spoke. "I guess that explains it."

"Wait." Tails said. "So you believe that?"

"Well I had my suspicions." Bentley said. "First off, I detected a sudden spike of electricity about a few hours ago, so Murray and I investigated hoping Sly had managed to come back."

"That was probably my teleporter." MTM said.

"The second was when we got a good look at you. It was obvious you weren't from around here because in our lives we've never seen anyone like you."

"Hey." Calvin interjected. "I'm proud of my appearance."

"Finally, if time travel was possible here, I guess universe travel is possible." Bentley concluded.

"Now that we have that out of the way." Calvin said walking to the desk. "On to the thing I was gonna do. MTM."

"Yo."

"Locate this Sly Cooper person please."

"Where he is in the world or What time period he's in?"

"Time Period." Bentley said.

"Very well, Processing."

After about a minute the MTM beeped.

"You found him?" Jak asked.

"Yes." The MTM said. "He's right here in the present."

"What." Murray asked. "Then why haven't we seen him?"

"Kidding, he's actually in Ancient Egypt."

"Oh."

"And I didn't tell you this but because Calvin hasn't updated my time traveling software in a while, I'm unable to use the time travel feature."

Bentley thought for a moment. "Well we could use my time machine." he said. "But that requires a item from the time period you want to travel too. If Sly was here he could grab a artifact, but he's not here. I might contact her, might give her the good news…"

"Sorry to interrupt." Calvin said raising his hand. "But I do have a time machine."

"I thought the MTM was your time machine." Murray said.

"Yes, but I use this one a bit more often."

Calvin got out his hypercube and pulled out the cardboard box.

Bentley and Murray stared at it for a while.

"Okay, I can buy the fact that you're from different universes." Bentley said staring at the cardboard box. "But this is a bit of a stretch."

"Very well." Calvin said pulling out some goggles. "Allow me to demonstrate that I am not crazy."

Calvin put the goggles on, got in the cardboard box, pressed a few buttons and the cardboard box lifted off.

Bentley and Murray watched in amazement, but Calvin wasn't done yet.

A vortex opened and Calvin in the box flew in it.

Not long after Calvin came walking to the door.

Naturally, Bentley and Murray were a bit confused as Calvin had gone through the vortex a second ago.

"In case you're wondering, yes, you did see that." Calvin said calmly as if he'd done it before. "I simply traveled a minute into the past and waited until my future self took off in the vortex."

Finally Murray spoke. "It's amazing what you can do with cardboard these days."

Calvin began to dig through his hypercube again. "Also, I think I have a Egyptian artifact in here somewhere. Ah here it is."

He pulled out a chunk of stone with hieroglyphs written on it.

"Hopefully that's enough."

Bentley approached Calvin. To Calvin's surprise, a pair a mechanical arms sprouted from Bentley's wheelchair and grabbed the stone.

Bentley examined it and after about a minute nodded in approval.

"That should do." He said. "Oh, and Jak."

"Yes." Jak said.

"I believe this belongs to you."

One of Bentley's mechanical arms got Jak's morph gun out and threw it at him, with Jak catching it perfectly in his hand.

"Thanks for giving it back."

"Your welcome."

He then turned to the group. "I'll be getting our time machine ready, so come with me."

With that everyone left the room.

* * *

Back with the other group, things could have been going better for them.

Ratchet was doing his best holding off the umbra with a flamethrower. It was pretty effective as the umbra burned away quickly. But he was running out of ammo and there were more umbra coming in.

Amy and Andy did their best to hold them off but it was a losing battle as some managed to get through.

In both instances, whenever one of the umbra died the other would absorb its remains and get stranger and bigger.

"We need to get out of here." Sonic said as he punched and kicked an umbra.

"How?" Ratchet asked. "They've probably crowded around the door."

"There's always another way out. We just haven't looked hard enough"

Andy looked around, looking for something like a emergency exit. He then spotted a hatch with words on it.

 _EMERGENCY EXIT._

 _PULL HANDLE FOR LADDER._

Andy knew he couldn't reach the hatch on his own, so he called on someone he least expected.

"Socrates." he called.

"Yes." Socrates said turning to him as he wrestled a umbra away.

"I need your help."

"Just a moment please."

He then got a bouquet of flowers out and squeezed the bottom. Causing water to spew from the flowers.

This blinded the umbra giving Socrates a chance to escape.

"What do you need me for Andy?"

"Well I need you to give me a boost to open that hatch." Andy explained pointing to the emergency exit.

"Very well, get on my shoulders."

Andy did so and Socrates lifted him up slowly.

"Oomph." Socrates grunted. "I think I popped something in my back."

Andy reached for the hatch, which wasn't easy as Socrates was swaying.

"Andy, hurry up and open the hatch." Socrates said.

"I'm trying."

He could just feel his fingertips on the handle.

By then Ratchet had run out of ammo for his flamethrower and was now blasting away with his Combuster.

Finally, Andy grabbed the handle and pulled on it. By then Socrates could take much more and left him hanging.

A ladder then came down to the floor. Andy put his feet on one of the rungs and pushed on the hatch, which opened.

"Guy's up here." Andy said.

Everyone looked at where Andy was. Quickly figuring out what it was, the heroes made a mad scramble for the ladder.

Because no one was now holding off the umbra, they were now flooding into the room.

When Amy was on the ladder, a umbra grabbed her by the foot and began pulling.

"Get off me." she cried as she stamped her foot on the umbra.

Socrates got a water balloon out and tossed it at the umbra.

It landed squarely in it's face, covering it with glue. Causing the creature to screech loudly and let go of Amy.

Once she went through the hatch, Sonic kicked the door shut.

"How many close calls have we had so far?" Ratchet asked as he caught his breath.

"I don't know." Sonic said. "Maybe four or five."

"It doesn't matter now." Clank said. "We just need to find the vehicle that could get us to where the precursor star is."

Socrates looked around and saw the vehicle exactly where Garrick said it would be.

"Found it." Socrates said pointing in that direction.

"Where?" Andy said.

"It's exactly where that fellow Garrick said it would be." Socrates said grinning. "In front of all those umbra."

Socrates grin dropped.

He was right, there was hundreds umbra surrounding the building and they were quickly surrounding the building.

"We just can't catch a break." Ratchet said.

* * *

Back with Calvin's group. They had just finished preparations to travel back in time and were now in the garage.

Bentley's time machine was a van that was blue, had a racoon logo, and had some painted on flames. On top of it was a giant yellow clock.

Inside, Bentley had put the stone Calvin gave him in a glass dome. The machine recognized the stone as from ancient egypt, and was ready to go to that time period.

Calvin had set the time period to egypt and had expanded the cardboard box to fit Hobbes, Jak, Tails, Sherman and Daxter. Right now he was waiting for the ok to lift off.

Murray, who was in the driver's seat of the van, gave the thumbs up.

Calvin nodded and pressed a few buttons.

The box lifted off and flew through the open door. While the van drove to the street.

"Do we have enough road Murray?" Bentley asked.

"Looks like it." Murray said.

Bentley nodded. "Do it."

Murray hit the accelerator and the car began to gain speed. Suddenly the back of the van lifted revealing a rocket booster, the wheels of the van lifted causing it to hover, finally it vanished in a flash.

"Great Scott." Sherman said in awe as he watched what happened.

"Figured you were going to make that reference." Calvin said. "Vortex goggles on everyone."

Everyone did so and Calvin pressed more buttons. A blue vortex appeared.

"Hang on boy's."

With that the cardboard box entered the vortex.

However no one noticed the black clouds approaching over Paris.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** _To answer one reviews question. Playstation move heroes is non canon here. So no Jak and Daxter would not recognize Bentley._


	11. Ancient Egypt

Chapter 11. Ancient Egypt.

Inside the time vortex, the cardboard box traveled through blue clouds and lightning.

"How far do we need to go back?" Daxter asked.

"Well the MTM said we need to go to around 1400 B.C." Calvin explained as he steered the time machine. "That's what Bentley set his time machine to before we took off."

"Yeah, but how will we know what year to get off from." Hobbes asked.

"Trust me, i'll know."

They continued the trip in silence for a few minutes.

The MTM broke the silence. "Get out of the time vortex now."

Calvin pressed a button and the vortex disappeared. It was replaced with a vast desert that had a group pyramids that stood out of the bare nothingness. Next to them was a marketplace that had houses made of brick and had roofs of straw. In the middle of the marketplace was a tower that seemed to look down on the buildings.

"Wow." Tails said looking down. "Should have brought my camera."

"Now to figure out where Bentley and Murray are." Jak said. "Assuming they've arrived before us."

"About that." The MTM said. "They've arrived and appear to be setting up shop. I'll guide you to the building that they're in. First turn left."

Calvin did so, and they flew towards the marketplace.

After flying for about a couple of minutes the MTM spoke again. "Now land in that alley below so you can't be seen by the residents here."

Calvin landed the box in the alley and once everyone was out, he put it back in his hypercube.

"Get out of the alley and enter the building on the right.

The group walked out, with Jak taking a quick look around. Once he was sure no one was looking at the group, he motioned the group and they went into the building to the right.

Inside the building, Bentley and Murray were setting up the base. Bentley had set up a generator and was on a computer, meanwhile Murray was doing his best to cover up the van up.

Bentley noticed them enter. "Ah good you're here. For a moment I thought you landed in the wrong year."

"Well thanks to my piloting, we managed to get here." Calvin said.

Bentley nodded and got out a tablet. "Now then let me explain how we're going to find Sly."

He pressed a button, and a screenshot of high tech looking binoculars.

"Sly and us use these binoculars to communicate with each other and take photos." He explained. "I also designed them with a tracker so in case we lose one, we can easily find it."

"So what are you going to do first, Try to call him?" Jak asked.

"Well we tried that when we arrived, but got nothing." Bentley explained. "I'm guessing it's due to the battery dying, so we're going to have to track it down."

"Okay, so who's going to do it?" Hobbes asked crossing his arms.

"You are." Bentley said pointing to the group.

There was a pause before Calvin spoke.

"Of course." He muttered.

"Now the binocucom has been found in one of the buildings not far from here. It's possible that Sly might be there, so you might want to check there first."

"Never fear Bentley." Hobbes said patting him on the head. "We'll find and bring back your friend in one piece."

"If we find anything relating to your friend, we'll contact you." Calvin said as they exited the building.

With that the group left, leaving Bentley and Murray alone.

* * *

Back at Ratchet's universe, the other group was on the roof. They were right now trying to figure out how to get to the hovercraft. The Umbra couldn't climb up walls thankfully, but there was an occasional rattle from the hatch they escaped through.

"Is it clear yet?" Socrates asked lying down on the ground staring at the sky.

"No." Sonic said.

Amy checked on the umbra down below. They had grouped up at the building and were reaching for them, but because our heroes were on the roof they couldn't get to them.

"Is it clear now?" Socrates asked again.

"No." Clank said.

Andy noticed the hatch had begun to rattle again, so he went over to it held it shut.

"Is it clear now?" Socrates asked once again.

"Yes." Amy said.

"Really?" Socrates asked springing up.

"By that, I mean no." Amy said.

"Oh." Socrates frowned and went back to lying down.

Guess what he began to ask again.

"Is it clear.."

"Socrates stop asking that question." Ratchet said getting slightly annoyed.

"But i'm bored." Socrates replied.

"Why don't you try to entertain the umbra down below us?" Sonic asked.

"Okay." Socrates said. He then began to walk to the edge, pulled out a few balls and began to juggle.

"We need to get out of here." Amy muttered.

"I agree." Andy said. "Ratchet, do you have a plan to get to that hovercraft yet?"

"I'm working on it." Ratchet replied.

Ratchet looked around, there was no tower they could knock down so they could just go over the umbra, nor could he summon the aphelion because it was still wrecked from the crash landing back in Sonic's universe.

There was only one option he had to go with.

Ratchet got out another weapon and aimed it at the ground below.

"What are you doing?" Clank asked as Ratchet aimed the weapon.

"Clearing a path." he responded.

He then fired the weapon, launching a bomb from below. After bouncing for a few minutes it exploded.

That was the cue Ratchet needed as he jumped down. Everyone else, noticing this, ran to the roof and jumped off with him.

The bomb that Ratchet had fired wasn't actually done, as it had split into smaller bombs and they were taking out the umbra as well. Making going through the crowd much easier

As they ran through the crowd Ratchet fired his blaster at any umbra approached them, Amy swung her hammer, Sonic used his speed to fight them, while Andy and Socrates used whatever they could find such as a broken pole, a empty can, a clipboard and a water balloon to hold them off.

They managed to make it to the hovercraft where Ratchet tore the door open and climbed inside, while the others went into the back door.

"Clank do you have the card?" Ratchet asked slamming the door on a umbra that was leaping towards him.

Clank nodded and got the card out. Ratchet grabbed it and began looking for a place to put it.

In the back the others were having a bit of difficulty shutting the door as some of the Umbra had made it and were trying to pull the door open. Sonic, Andy, and Socrates were trying to hold the door, but the door was still kept open slightly.

"I am sick of these things already." Andy grumbled as he held the door.

"Let's just hope Ratchet gets this vehicle started so we can get out of here." Sonic said.

Back in the driver's side Ratchet had found the place to put the keycard and put it in.

Nothing happened.

"What?" Ratchet said. "I put the card in the right place, why won't it start."

"It probably needs some time to start up." Clank said.

"How long would that take?"

"Maybe about a minute."

In the back area, the three holding the door were slowly losing as the door was opening slightly wider.

Suddenly, a umbra grabbed Socrates leg and began pulling.

"HEY." Socrates cried as he grabbed on to the door

Sonic and Andy, noticing Socrates was in trouble, let go of the door to help him. This caused umbra to rapidly advance, making their way towards the door. Amy went to them and began swinging her hammer against the umbra.

"When will this vehicle move already?" Sonic asked as he and Andy pulled at Socrates.

In the driver seat, Ratchet was counting down the seconds until the vehicle started up.

Just then, he heard the sound of the engine starting up. Instantly he grabbed the wheel and put his seatbelt on.

"Better hold on Clank." he said.

With that Ratchet put his foot on the accelerator.

In the back, some of the umbra were beginning to get in the vehicle despite Amy's attempts. Socrates meanwhile was losing his grip against the door.

Just then the vehicle began to accelerate, causing Socrates to be thrown inside. There were umbra still holding on to the door but were now losing their grip.

Sonic made his way to the still open door, which wasn't easy as there was wind due to the vehicle moving at a fast speed.

Eventually he managed to reach the door and used one hand to reach for the door handle and the other to hang on to an edge to prevent himself from being thrown back by the wind.

He managed to grab the handle and taking advantage of the speed, let go of edge he was holding on to. This caused the wind to push him back and shutting the door in the process.

The others watched as the umbra chased the vehicle, but were quickly lost thanks to the speed.

"Well." Amy said. "At least we're safe for now."

Andy peeked over and saw Ratchet driving.

"Ratchet, how long will this trip take?" he asked.

"About 6 hours." Ratchet replied. "Provided that we don't have to take any detours along the way."

"I don't know about you but I need a nap." Socrates said stretching himself on the floor. "These last few hours have really exhausted me."

"You do that." Sonic said taking a seat and rubbing his head.

"Are you okay?" Clank asked peeking through the hole.

"Not exactly. Part of our group is missing, we don't know where they are and creatures that we can't seem to stop almost killed us."

"What do you know?" Andy remarked. "I have that same feeling for the same reasons."

* * *

Back in Egypt, the group were navigating through the market.

"So." Daxter said grabbing an apple from a market stand. "Can we expect to encounter a mummy here?"

"Hopefully not." Tails said.

"Well, if we do have to enter a pyramid i'm not taking the MTM inside." Calvin said.

"Why's that?" Daxter asked

"Well there was this one time Calvin had to write a report on egypt." Hobbes began.

"Hobbes." Calvin said narrowing his eyes.

"And since he couldn't have bothered actually studying, he decided to go to Egypt."

"Hobbes."

"When he along with me, Andy, Socrates, and Verman went into a pyramid." Hobbes continued, Sherman gave a quick glare when he said that. "The radiation from one of the features from the MTM brought a few mummies back to life."

"I'm warning you Hobbes." Calvin said with barely contained anger.

"And wouldn't you know it, Calvin got a D minus on his report." Hobbes said, finishing the story.

At that moment Calvin tackled him and the two began fighting.

"Oh look we're here." The MTM said.

Jak, Daxter, Sherman and Tails stopped. Calvin and Hobbes didn't seem to notice and kept fighting.

The tower looked like it had seen better days. The windows were boarded up and the clay was worn in several places.

"So how do we get in?" Sherman asked.

"Let's try the front door." Jak said approaching the door.

He tried to open the door but it wouldn't budge.

He then tried to kick it open, but with the same results.

"Well we aren't going in that way." Jak said going back to the group.

"Wait isn't there usually a opening hatch on the top of these towers?" Sherman said.

"Yeah but we're gonna need to climb." Daxter said. "Maybe two can go up there and check."

"Yeah, but who?" Tails said.

"I can go." Jak said.

"We have one." Sherman said. "But who else should go?"

Everyone turned around and looked at Calvin and Hobbes, who were still fighting.

* * *

After they managed to stop Calvin and Hobbes from fighting, Hobbes was chosen to go with Jak.

They started by climbing up one of the houses and then jumping across the roofs until they eventually reached the top of the tower.

The top of the tower was nothing special. There wasn't much except for a rug and Jak and Hobbes didn't see a hatch.

"Don't be fooled easily." Hobbes said. "Entrances like these are usually hidden."

Jak, taking that advice pulled the rug and found a door. He opened it and the two entered.

The inside of the tower looked like someone was living here. There was something that looked like a bed, a table with an empty plate that was dusty, a few items of varying quality piled in a corner, a blue cap and shirt, a black mask, and perhaps the item that was most out of place in the timeline, a pair of blue hi tech looking binoculars near a window.

Jak picked up the binoculars and inspected them. On them were two buttons, Call, and Photography, there was also a dial that said zoom. He looked through them but nothing much happened except what you'd expect when you looked through binoculars. But when he tried the buttons a display popped up saying, "NO BATTERY."

"Looks like this Sly Cooper person was here." Hobbes said inspecting the clothes. "Judging from the state of this place he hasn't been here for a while."

"I also found what looks like the binoculars Beantly showed us." Jak said, showing them to Hobbes.

"So essentially, we are at a dead end." Hobbes said. "Also, make sure you don't give those to Calvin."

"Why?" Jak asked.

"Calvin kind of had a incident with his father's binoculars years ago." Hobbes explained.

"Oh what happened?" Jak asked.

Before Hobbes could explain they heard a shout.

"HOBBES, JAK, HELP!"

"That sounded like Calvin." Hobbes said racing to the window.

He and Jak looked outside, they watched in shock as Calvin was thrown in a bag by a jackal and Tails cornered by two cats.

"We need to help them." Jak said getting his morph gun out.

"Wait." Hobbes said. "They don't know we're up here."

"But they're gonna get kidnapped." Jak said. "And may I remind you that your friend got thrown into that bag."

Hobbes thought about it for a moment before saying. "Good point, attack them."

Jak aimed it at the Jackal, who was picking up the bag and fired. Unfortunately the shot missed and got the attention of the Jackal, who looked up and saw them.

"Hey." it yelled. "There's someone up there!"

The two cats looked up and saw the two. Meanwhile the Jackal ran off. Jak and Hobbes ducked away from the window.

"What do we do now?" Hobbes asked.

"Well if someone ever comes in and and tries to capture us, we'll try to fend them off." Jak replied.

However as they waited for whoever came in they heard a noise. Curious they peeked over and saw a robed figure with a hood and a gold cane fighting one of the cats cornering Tails.

The figure managed to defeat one of the cats before the other began to sneak up on the figure. However the figure noticed the other cat and used the hook at the tip of his cane to trip the cat before whacking the cat upside the head.

The figure then ran and using the environment made it to the rooftop of one of the buildings.

Certain that things were safe, Hobbes and Jak got out of the tower and went to Tails.

"Are you okay?" Hobbes asked Tails.

Tails nodded "Did you find anything up there?"

"We did find the binocucom." Jak said. "But other then that nothing much. What happened down here?"

"We we're waiting for you to find anything, the jackal and the two cats cornered us and took Calvin, and they were about to take me until that hooded figure showed up and saved us."

"Where's Daxter and Sherman?"

"Right here." Daxter said peeking out from a pile of blankets.

"Glad your safe Daxter. But what about Sherman?" Hobbes asked

"The jackal took Sherman along with Calvin." Tails explained.

"I'm presuming Calvin has the MTM."

"Yes he does."

"Then we need to go after them."

"But we don't know where to go." Daxter pointed out.

"Let's just try to follow the jackal." Hobbes said.

"How are we supposed to find him?" Tails asked.

"Simple, find the one with the brown bag that looks like someone trying to get out of it and follow him."

With that the four gave chase to the jackal that took Calvin and Sherman.

* * *

Inside the bag the jackal was carrying, Calvin and Sherman were trying to break the bag to escape, but it wasn't working.

"It's not a plastic bag Calvin." Sherman said as Calvin tried to poke the bag with his finger. "It's burlap."

"We'll it's still can be broken." Calvin said as he began to dig through his hypercube. "We just need something sharper."

After some digging he finally got a pair of scissors and began to poke the sharp end against the burlap bag. Sure enough the scissors poked through the bag.

Smiling, Calvin turned the scissors upward and began to cut a gap.

Eventually the gap was wide enough that he and Sherman managed to slip through. Unfortunately that made noise and that caught the attention of the jackal.

"Hey." He yelled when he caught sight of the two.

"Run." Sherman said.

Calvin didn't need any warning as he scooped up Sherman and began to ran.

He moved through the the alleys of the marketplaces, with the jackal in hot pursuit of the two.

"We need to lose this guy before we find the others." Calvin said.

"The basket's" Sherman said pointing to one of them. "We can hide in there."

Calvin quickly dived in one of the baskets and put a cover on it just to make sure he and sherman would not be seen.

The jackal made it to where Calvin and Sherman were hiding and looked around. He saw two closed baskets and looked back and forth at the two. Deciding which one the two were hiding in.

He eventually picked one and saw..

A bunch of hay.

He looked inside the other and saw some pomegranates.

Disgruntled he ran in the direction where he assumed the two went.

After a while Calvin poked his head out of the basket that was opposite of the ones the jackal searched.

After looking around to make sure the coast was clear, he grabbed Sherman and got out.

"Okay we lost him, now we gotta find the others." Calvin said.

"Probably going to take awhile." Sherman said looking around. "We don't really know how far that jackal took us and we don't know if they at least followed his path."

"There they are."

Calvin turned around and saw Hobbes, Jak, Daxter and Tails running towards them.

"How did you find us?" Sherman asked as they approached the group.

"We kind of lost you when we tried following the jackal that took you." Tails explained. "But we found him running and assumed he was chasing you."

"What did you find up in the tower?" Calvin asked Hobbes.

"Well, not much." Hobbes said. "We found the binoculars Bentley showed us, some clothes, and a ton of artifacts. But not the person we're looking for."

"Darn." Calvin said. "I'll call Bentley to tell him what we found."

He got out the MTM and dialed Bentley's number.

After a few seconds Bentley picked up. "Hello, who is this."

"It's Calvin."

"Calvin, Did you find Sly?"

"No, we checked the tower. All we found were some clothes, artifacts, and something that looks like binoculars."

"That's probably the binocucom. Could you describe the clothes?"

"There a blue shirt and cap and one of those masks that bandits would wear in old cartoons."

"Those are definitely Sly's clothes. Do you have anything else that might tell him where he is?"

"Unfortunately, no." Hobbes said. "We're not fearing the worst yet, though."

"Don't worry Bentley." Calvin said reassuringly. "We'll find him."

"I hope so." Bentley said.

The group stood in silence for a bit. If this Sly Cooper character was dead, this trip might be all for nothing. But despite this, they were confident he was alive.

Suddenly Bentley spoke in alarm. "You might want to hurry back here. There's a giant sandstorm coming towards this village."

"Wait What." Daxter said, taken aback by the sudden outburst.

"A sandstorm is heading here and it's going to hit the village in a couple of minutes."

"What if we can't make it here." Tails asked, worried.

"Then find another way of sheltering yourself." Bentley said. "I've got to hang up now. Murray, block the windows."

The line went dead.

"MTM, how far is the place where Bentley and Murray are hiding?" Calvin said panicking.

"It's about 3 minutes from where we are, and that's the quickest route." The MTM said.

"3 minutes!?" Daxter asked. "We'll never make it at that rate."

"And I can't teleport you there because the teleporter still isn't working at the moment."

"Looks like we're gonna have to find our own form of shelter." Sherman said.

Calvin immediately ran to the first building he saw and began to rapidly knock on the door.

"Let us in, please!" He said desperately.

In response the curtains of the building closed.

Not giving up Calvin ran to the building next to it and began to tug on the door handle.

"Come on, open up!" he said through gritted teeth and he tried to pull the door open.

"Tough luck kiddo." The person inside said. "It's your fault you didn't find shelter in time. Now you're going to get buried."

Calvin growled in frustration.

"Now what?" Jak asked. "A sandstorm is heading our way, we're too far from where Bentley and Murray are and no one is going to let us in."

"I suggest we find somewhere to hide, like an alleyway." Sherman suggested. "We should also put on some protective gear."

"Good idea." Jak said as he pulled his scarf to his mouth and put is goggles on.

Calvin dug through the hypercube and pulled out spare scarves, bandannas and goggles. "These are all have and I can put sherman in a bag for protection since I don't have any scarves of goggles to fit him."

"What makes you think i'll ever go into a bag after what we just experienced?" Sherman asked with a stare.

"It's either that or get buried in sand." Hobbes pointed out.

"I'll take the bag." Sherman said quickly.

Calvin fashioned a bandana into a sack and put sherman in it.

By then everyone had put on a bandana and began looking for an alleyway to hide behind before the sandstorm hit.

At this point, things started to go wrong.

The sandstorm reached the town and the force of the wind resulted in Daxter being blown off Jak's shoulder.

"DAXTER." Tails yelled.

By then however, Daxter had disappeared into the storm.

With no other choice they struggled through the storm, trying to look for an alleyway.

"Look over there." Hobbes said pointing to his right.

The group turned and squinted to see what Hobbes was pointing at. Have you ever tried to see something in a sandstorm or a blizzard? It's not easy.

They saw that Hobbes was pointing to an alleyway and they began to struggle towards it.

They were just about to reach it when the winds picked up and blew them all away.

It blew them past buildings and eventually, out of town.

They laid there as the sand began to pile up on them. Burying them with no hope of someone finding them.

Hobbes gained consciousness for a moment, only able to see through one eye as the other was obstructed by sand.

He saw a hooded figure, the same hooded figure that saved Tails earlier. He was uncovering the others and putting them in some sort of wagon. Hobbes didn't know if they were alive or dead.

He saw the figure uncover Calvin, pick up his body and put it in the wagon.

He then passed out.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** I am so sorry for the huge gap between . Between things going on in my personal life and College. I've barely had time to write any chapters for this story. Let alone write this one.

See you whenever the next chapter is posted.


	12. The Lost Theif

Chapter 12. The Lost Thief.

Across a barren wasteland, a lone vehicle drove towards its destination. Inside it, a majority of it's passengers were asleep, except for one who was alone with his thoughts.

Andy sat against the wall of the vehicle staring at the others. Sonic had gone to sleep hours ago, Amy had been the next to go to sleep after Sonic and she was sleeping near him.

Socrates was asleep as well, Andy could hear him muttering in his sleep. Something about balloons filled with ranch.

In the front of the vehicle, Ratchet had turned on the autopilot and had gone to sleep along with Clank. Leaving Andy the only one awake.

There had been so little time to contemplate his situation because things had happened extremely quickly. But now, when they finally had a moment to rest, he could think about it now.

It seemed insane. the fact that there were other universes then the one he lived in, that there was a evil force bent on taking over them and they had to find objects to defeat it. It seemed like something out of one of the games he plays.

Yet, after years of fighting mad scientist's, aliens and otherworldly entities. It made sense to him that things like this would exist.

His mind traveled back to a few months ago. Back when Calvin and Hobbes had disappeared, he first found out when he went to his house after Calvin told him Socrates had begun selling his personality tests again, but instead he found his bedroom empty with no note explaining where he was going.

He at first assumed that he and Hobbes had gone somewhere and would be back later. But the next day, Calvin and Hobbes had still not returned and when he tried to call the number for the MTM he had gotten a call barely explaining anything. Calvin had told him during the call that he was escaping from Earl but he didn't buy that since, knowing the crew of that particular alien, it would only take Calvin and Hobbes less than an Hour to escape him.

He had gathered Sherman and Socrates to help, but just before they began their search for Calvin and Hobbes, they were captured and soon found out the truth of where Calvin and Hobbes had been and what they were doing.

When he first saw Calvin and Hobbes, he could barely believe his eyes. They had somehow gotten a few characters from different video games to help him. Once they had defeated the villains and returned home, the first thing He, Sherman and Socrates demanded was an explanation.

After Calvin finished explaining what had happened to him, they asked him why he didn't tell them sooner. He replied that everything was happening so quickly that he couldn't find the time to let them know he and Hobbes we're safe.

Thinking about it now. Andy could now understand how Calvin felt. When you're running from universe to universe, escaping villains and finding lost items, you don't exactly have time to let your friends know you're safe.

Suddenly the vehicle came to a halt.

Thinking they might have reached their destination, Andy peeked out the window. He saw nothing but the same barren wasteland that they had been traveling on for the past two hours.

Sonic stirred awake. Noticing Andy staring out the window, he went to him and saw the same thing he did.

"You don't think we've arrived here already, do you?" Sonic asked Andy.

"Probably not." Andy replied, shaking his head. "Because all I see is barren landscape."

Just then Ratchet came out with Clank.

By then everyone was mostly awake, except for Socrates, who was still fast asleep.

"Bad news." Ratchet said. "The vehicle ran out of fuel and it doesn't have any reserves."

"Let me guess." Sonic said. "We're gonna have to walk."

Ratchet nodded.

"This feels like a repeat of what happened when we we're trying to find the last chaos emerald on our last adventure together." Amy said.

"Well at least it's not in a frozen wasteland." Sonic said.

"How far away were we when the vehicle stopped?" Andy asked Clank.

"We were about an hour away." Clank replied.

"Should we be worried about the Umbra?"

"I saw only a few as we were traveling but they're mostly alone, so they shouldn't give us much trouble." Ratchet explained.

Just then Socrates woke up.

"Ahhhh." Socrates sighed in relief. "Haven't had a nice nap like that in ages."

He noticed everyone staring at him.

He then smiled. "So, what did i miss?"

"Let's just get going." Sonic said rolling his eyes.

* * *

Hobbes woke up. The first thing he noticed that he wasn't dead, the second thing was he was indoors now.

Slowly getting up, he observed his surroundings.

He had been laying on mat that was covered in a blanket, there was some sand of the floor, most likely whoever had saved him had dusted it off of him, and there was a table with a few items on it.

Hobbes realized he was thirsty. Made sense as he had been in the desert and had gotten some sand in his mouth.

He saw that a cup of water was on the table. He grabbed it and poured half of it's contents in his mouth.

He then spit some of it out and coughed. The sand in his mouth sort of gave it a foul taste.

"I see you're awake."

Hobbes turned his head and saw the same hooded figure who was leaning on the wall watching him. The golden cane he used as a weapon by his side.

He was wearing the same brown robe and had his hood pulled over most of his face, but now Hobbes could see that he was wearing brown gloves and boots. He could also make out a distinctly animal like face underneath the hood.

"You know, you're lucky I was around." the hooded figure continued. "If i wasn't you would've had no chance of survival."

"Thanks." Hobbes said taking another swig of water. "Now, how are my other friends doing?"

"They'll be fine." The hooded figure replied. "Most of them were awake by the time I decided to check on you."

There was a silence for about a minute as Hobbes finished his drink.

The hooded figure then spoke again. "You and your friends obviously aren't from around here."

"Really." Hobbes replied dryly. "What makes you think that?"

"I've been watching you ever since you landed here." The hooded figure explained.

He then pointed to Hobbes. "Now you and maybe the hamster wouldn't be out of place where I come from. But that two tailed fox, the orange weasel, and especially that kid and other guy, I don't think i've ever seen anything like them before."

"Thank you for figuring out that we don't belong here." Hobbes remarked. "That isn't a hard thing to figure out."

"Not to mention a couple of other things." The hooded figure continued. "I don't recall anyone having a gun like that or a cd player during this time. So you and your friends…"

"Are from the future." Hobbes finished getting annoyed. "Just stop answering the obvious questions for me and let me ask being, Who are you?"

"I'm just a stranger who decided to save you and your friend's life." The hooded figure replied.

"Really." Hobbes said raising an eyebrow and approaching him, his voice becoming a bit more frustrated. "You've been watching us ever since we got here, you saved both Tails and Daxter's life, and you saved us from being buried in the sand. That doesn't seem like a stranger to me."

Hobbes then grabbed the Hooded figure by the collar and shook him. "SO PLEASE TELL ME WHO YOU ARE!"

At that moment the door opened. Both Hobbes and the hooded figure looked over and saw Jak, Daxter, Calvin and Sherman standing there.

"Um." Calvin said. "Did we decide to enter at a bad time?"

Hobbes and the hooded figure looked at each other.

"No Calvin, you came in at the perfect time." Hobbes said calmly as he let go of the hooded figure and crossed his arms. "In fact, I think it's time you reveal yourself Mr. Hood."

The hooded figure stared at the group for a few seconds and sighed.

"Fine." he said. "I'll tell you who I am."

He put his hands too his hood and removed it.

Underneath the hood was the head of a raccoon. Some of it's grey fur was ruffled in the sides, not having been tended to in months. The racoon stared at them with it's brown eyes.

"My name is Sly Cooper." The raccoon said. "And I've been stuck in this time period for months."

* * *

Somewhere else in Egypt, a jackal was heading towards a palace that was near town. In comparison to the rest of the town, it seemed to tower over them with it's smooth granite walls, and almost modern like architecture considering the time period it was in.

The Jackal entered the building and went to one of the doors and nervously knocked on it.

"You may enter." A low deep voice said.

The Jackal gulped and slowly opened the door where he saw a figure sitting there.

The figure was large and muscular, to the point where the jackal was three-quarters of the figure height, it's short fingers were tapping at the chair it was sitting on, and it's face was covered in shadow. But it's yellow eyes seemed to glow in the dark.

"So." The figure said. "Did you get those visitors?"

"Well I-I-I Tried." The Jackal stuttered nervously. "But some hooded figure came and beat the minions forcing me to leave with what I put in the bag."

"I see you don't have the bag with you." The figure said narrowing his eyes. "What happened?"

"Th-They broke out." The Jackal said. "I tried to chase them, but I lost them."

At that point, the figure grabbed the jackals neck and pulled him close to his face.

The face was that of a bull, who obviously had seen better days. It was missing one horn, the other was broken and there we're various scars on his head, including near his eye.

"YOU MEAN YOU CAPTURED TWO OF THEM AND YOU COULDN'T EVEN KEEP THEM IN THE BAG." The Bull roared.

"Apis, please." The Jackal said. "They seemed to have things we don't seem to have."

"Enough about the bag." Apis grumbled lowing the jackal to the ground. "Was it the same hooded figure from the time we tried to transport swords from a neighboring village."

"Yes." The Jackal said lowering his head.

Frustrated Apis slammed his fist on the table. Causing a dent in it.

"That hooded figure has been causing trouble for far too long." he muttered. "Here I was ready to take over this village and this hooded figure shows up and starts giving us trouble. Now look at me, reduced to yelling at my own minions for their failures."

"If it makes you feel any better." The Jackal said. "The scouts did report the same hooded figure carrying a wagon with a couple of the people you wanted captured."

Apis turned his head. "Where did he go?" he asked.

"They reported he went to a small home near the edge of the village."

He stared in silence for a moment.

Apis then grinned. "Get some of the troops. We're going to take care of the hooded one, once and for all."

The Jackal nodded and ran off.

* * *

Back with the group, they were in silence as they found out the identity of their rescuer.

"So you're the one who saved Tails and Daxter from those minions and saved us from the sandstrom." Jak said.

Sly nodded.

"But why?" Daxter asked.

"I may be a thief." Sly said. "But that doesn't mean I can't help people."

"Enough of that." Tails said. "How did you even get here."

Sly sighed and closed his eyes.

He sat down and began to tell his story. "It was months ago, or when I was in the present depending on how you interpret it. I was fighting off a villain during my last adventure. Just as I defeated him, he took my parachute and left me on his time traveling blimp."

"So you got here by time travel." Calvin said. "Makes sense."

Sly nodded before continuing his story. "When I woke up, I found I was in ancient egypt. My first instinct was to find my ancestor who had lived during this time, but I must've landed in some other part of egypt because I couldn't find him. I knew Bentley and Murray wouldn't be able to find me immediately since they needed something from that time period."

Sly sighed. "So i've been stuck here for about six months."

"Six months?" Tails asked surprised. "But Bentley and Murray said they've been looking for you for two months."

"Well, sometimes when you travel in time, you can't expect an exact date." Sherman explained. "Sometimes you end up a few months ahead or behind. So we must have landed at a point where Sly had been here for about half a year."

"Well, I'm glad they finally found me." Sly said smiling. "But what I don't get is why they sent you to get me, and why you're different from each other."

Everyone looked at each other.

"Well." Jak said putting his hand behind his head. "You might not believe us if we told you but..."

"We're from alternate universes." Calvin finished.

They all looked at Sly. Who stared at them with a perplexed reaction on his face.

Finally he spoke. "We'll, I guess that explains why you all look so different from each other."

"We really didn't mean to land in your universe." Tails said.

"It was more of a coincidence than anything else." Daxter remarked.

"We're just trying to look for things that can save our universes."

"Really." Sly said. "What do they look like?"

Jak brought out a bundle of cloth and unwrapped it, revealing the precursor star.

"They look like this." he said

At the sight of this Sly's eye's widened.

"Where did you get that?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" Calvin asked confused. "Have you seen this before?"

"Yes." Sly said getting up. "I don't exactly have one mind you, but I know of someone who does."

"Who?" Hobbes asked.

"Follow me."

They were led by Sly into a room, where he had various drawings and notes scattered on a table. Sly picked up one of the drawings, which depicted a bull with one horn gone and the other broken, and he had scars across his head.

"This lovely fellow is named Apis." Sly said showing the group the drawing. "Apologies if I this isn't the exact appearance of him. Without the binocucom I can't exactly take pictures."

He then continued to explain as he picked up some notes. "He's essentially responsible for a few nasty things that have been happening in this village. Kidnapping, Smuggling and property damage, all that stuff. Now, here's where it get's interesting."

He got another piece of paper, which depicted Apis holding on to some sort of star. "I was spying on him a few months ago and saw that he had an object similar to the one you showed me. I've been trying to figure out how to get it ever since."

"Makes sense as you're a thief." Sherman said. "So you've been essentially been stealing items from this guy just to mess with him."

"Well my family does have a code."

"That being?"

"We only steal from criminals."

"Let's back on topic shall we." Calvin said wanting to know more about the star and how to get it. "What's been taking you so long to even get the star?"

"We'll i'm no planner like Bentley." Sly answered. "So planning is essentially taking a bit longer than usual. What I did was scout the building, there seem to be a lot of guards, both outside and inside. And without both him and Murray I have little to no chance of getting in."

Sly, finishing his explanation breathed a sigh.

There was a silence for about a minute before Tails spoke up.

"Maybe we can help you."

Sly raised his head. "What."

"You obviously need some help with this task, and we have more than enough knowledge and skill to help you get that star."

"And maybe we can help each other out." Hobbes pointed out.

"What do you mean?" Sly asked.

"You need to get back to present, we need to get that precursor star to save our universes. Seams like a fair trade."

Sly considered this for a moment. After a few seconds he nodded his head.

"Okay, that sounds good to me."

"Right." Daxter said. "So what's the plan."

Just then they heard a voice.

"This is the place. I'm sure of it."

They peeked out the window and saw Jackal's and cats going to where they are.

"Oh no." Sly said.

"Let me guess." Daxter said. "Those are Apis goons."

"Should have been more careful." Sly muttered before turning to the group. "You need to hide now."

"But we can handle ourselves." Calvin said.

"Look, there's probably about twenty of them and they're coming for me and possibly you. So find somewhere to hide."

* * *

The goon's went up the stairs and kicked open the door.

"He's not here." One of them said. This one being a Jackal

"Check everywhere." Another said, this one being a cat. "This guy's been known to be pretty good at hiding."

The two then split off, each being accompanied by another.

The Jackal went into the room and saw the drawings and note scattered on the table.

The Jackal observed them, picking up various pieces of paper.

"Looks like he has notes on all of Apis's crime operation." He said. "Almost every little thing he's done."

"What do you suggest we do with it?" one of the goons said. That one being a falcon.

"We'll take it to Apis and destroy it." The Jackal said.

Unbeknownst to them however, Sly was hiding underneath a bed and was silently emerging from behind the falcon.

At that moment, the falcon looked back and noticed him. Before he could even get a word out, Sly used the hook end of the cane to grab his leg, causing him to fall to the floor. He then whacked his head for good measure.

However the Jackal had noticed this, and managed to cry out, "He's here.", before Sly jumped over him. Using the cane to hook his neck, he landed on the table, causing the Jackal's head to slam down on the tables edge, knocking him unconscious.

Sly turned to the door and saw four Jackals and Falcons holding weapons ranging from swords to bows. They we're blocking the door, so Sly was trapped in here.

"Alpis is going to have a real fun time with you." One of the Jackals said with a grin on his face.

"No thank's." Sly remarked. "I think i'll pass on that arrangement."

"So be it, Kill him."

The Falcon's and Jackals pointed their weapons at Sly.

Just as they we're about to attack him one of the Falcons suddenly was transformed into a small rat.

The other three looked at the rat confusion, when suddenly they were hit by blaster fire.

Jak and Calvin then peeked through the doorway.

"I thought you were going to hide." Sly said relieved that he was safe for now.

"We did." Calvin said. "They just discovered us and we had to fight them off."

"Then we saw you cornered by those guys and thought we'd help out." Jak said

"Where are your other friends?" Sly asked.

"Oh their finishing off the other minions." Calvin said. "What's our plan of escape?"

"Hold on." Sly said as he grabbed a few papers from the table.

He then rushed to a window and opened it. Using his cane to hang on to the rope that was above the window and rode it to the roof that was below them.

"I guess that works." Calvin said, shrugging his shoulders.

Just then, Tails and Hobbes came out with Daxter and Sherman behind them.

"Folks, we're going ziplining." Calvin said turning to the others.

He then got out the MTM and got out some coat hangers.

"Hopefully these are strong enough to get us all across the rope." Calvin said handing them out to Tails, Hobbes and Jak.

"Hey what about us?" Daxter asked pointing to Sherman.

"You can simply hang on to one of us." Hobbes said.

"I'm not going to hang on to you." Sherman said.

"Okay then, maybe you'd prefer being captured by the minions and taken to their boss. Where he would probably do horrible things to you."

"Why do you always have to put it like that?" Sherman sighed.

He got into Calvin's pocket, and Calvin jumped up to the rope and slid down the rope to the roof where Sly was.

The rest followed suit. With Hobbes going first, Daxter holding on to him and then Tails.

Just before Jak went, he switched his morph gun to it's gyro baster mode and fired a grey disc at the center of the room. After that he slid down the rope.

Just then the remaining minions entered the room and took notice of the grey disc that was now lying on the floor.

Suddenly they grey disc jumped into the air and began to spin. As it did that it began to fire rapidly.

The minions scrambled for cover, but most didn't make it as it tore them apart. When the drone had fired about 50 shots, it made a small explosion.

As that happened, Jak made it safely to the roof. Hobbes then cut the rope to make sure any remaining minions wouldn't follow them.

"We should probably go." Tails said. "All that might have attracted some attention."

They then ran across the rooftops until they were sure they were safe.

"What do we do now?" Daxter asked.

"Simple." Calvin said. "We get back at this Alpis fellow and get the precursor star."

"Hold on." Hobbes said holding up his hands. "For starters, we don't know where this Alpis guy lives. Secondly, even when we do find out where he is, are we just going to walk up to him and ask him for the star?"

"Well we could try to fight our way through." Tails said. "Jak has enough firepower."

"Yeah, about that." Jak said. "I'm running out of ammo for my morph gun and since I doubt that there's any ammo around at this time period, any ammo I have is what i've got."

"Well, how are we going to do it?" Sherman asked. "We can't ask him, or brute force our way through."

"We sneak in." Sly suddenly said.

Everyone turned to him and saw that he had laid down the blueprints of the building and was getting some ink out.

He then looked up at them and smiled "And I know just what to do."


	13. Infiltration

Chapter 13. Infiltration.

On the rooftop, everyone gathered around Sly as he talked them through the plan. They had told him their names before he went over what his plan was.

"Here's the plan." Sly began. "Apis usually has a delivery wagon come through his base. It contains things like weapons, illegal spices and sometimes food."

"How does that relate to what we're doing?" Sherman asked.

"Simple." Sly replied. "You're going to be replacing that cargo."

He pointed to Hobbes. "Hobbes will disguise himself as a delivery person, while you will hide in the boxes that supposedly contain those things I just mentioned."

"Just like the trojan horse." Calvin said.

Sly nodded before continuing. "From there you will quietly take out the guards that are on the roof. When you signal that it's all clear I can go in and take the precursor star."

"Okay." Tails said. "But by then, Apis might be aware of what's going on. What's the escape plan?"

"We go to the roof and jump off." Sly explained. "There's a wagon of hay on the left side of the building. We can simply jump in and when it's clear, we can escape."

He finished and looked at them. "Any questions?"

Daxter raised his hand.

"Can I sit this one out?" he asked.

* * *

That night, at Apis's building, a falcon stood guard, looking out for any intruders that came near the building.

He noticed someone pulling a wagon coming towards him.

"Halt." He said putting his hand up.

The figure with the wagon continued towards him.

The guard got out his bow. "Halt or I will shoot."

The figure stopped and looked at him with an annoyed look in his eyes.

"Is that a way you greet a delivery person?" he asked.

The guard looked and saw that the figure was in a white robe and his face was covered, leaving the eye's open.

"Oh sorry." The guard said putting away the bow. "Forgot we had a shipment tonight."

The guard opened the gate and let the wagon in.

"Say." The guard said observing the delivery man closely. "You're not the usual delivery man."

"Oh." the delivery man said. "I'm new and it's my first time delivering here."

The guard stared at him, looking at him closely. "Why is your face covered?"

"Need to be protected from the sandstorms." The delivery man explained. "Those things can blind you."

"Very well." The guard said. "You may enter."

The guard opened the gate and the delivery man towed his wagon inside.

One of the other guards, a Jackal, noticed the delivery man.

"Hey, you're late." the Jackal said approaching the delivery man.

"Got lost on the way here." The delivery man said before adding. "First day."

"Never mind that." The Jackal said. "You have the goods?"

The delivery man nodded and showed him the crates.

The Jackal grinned. "Alright people, help me get these crates off the wagon."

A few other guards, ranging from falcons, jackals and cats, came out and began to take the crates out of the wagon.

"I expect a tip from this." The delivery man said. "Those crates weren't light you know."

"You were late." A jackal replied. "The least you're gonna get is a thanks."

All the other guards laughed at this.

The delivery man sighed in annoyance.

"Now let's see what's inside." A cat said.

He opened the large crate and was confused by it's contents.

He turned to the delivery man. "What is th…"

He didn't get to finish his sentence before he was punched.

Jak emerged from the crate and continued to fight the cat.

A falcon quickly opened another crate and checked its contents.

"MTM electrocute him." A voice said.

A bolt of electricity ht the falcon and he fell on the ground convulsing.

Calvin exited the box, holding the MTM in his hands.

The Jackal turned to the delivery man. "This isn't the deliveries we asked for!" he yelled. "Who are you?!"

The delivery man sighed. "Well, no point in using this anymore."

He grabbed the robes he was wearing and tossed them off. Revealing that the delivery man was Hobbes.

He then pounced on the jackal, who was caught off guard, knocking him unconscious.

He then opened another box, which contained Tails, who used the transmogrifyer gun to turn a guard into a harmless rock.

By then the rest of the group were finishing off the remaining guards.

"I think that's the last of them." Calvin said looking around.

Hobbes opened the last box and pulled out Daxter and Sherman.

"Finally." Daxter said as he breathed in fresh air. "Do you realize how hard it was to breathe in there?"

"Well Sly didn't want them getting suspicious about what was inside." Hobbes replied.

"I'm gonna have to agree with Daxter." Sherman said. "Next time at least create some small air holes so we can at least breathe."

"Enough of that." Calvin said. "We're inside. All we need to do is take out the guards on the roof and then Sly can do the rest."

With that, they entered Apis's lair.

From the building across, Sly watched them enter.

He smiled, everything was going as planned.

* * *

Inside the building, the group made their way up a ladder, hoping it would lead them to the roof.

They came to the top of the ladder with an open passageway. Hobbes, who on top of them, decided to peek out to see if it was clear.

He found that hallway and there were no guards.

He signaled to the others that it was all clear and they entered the hallway, careful not to make any noise.

They saw another ladder next to them and climbed up, revealing it led to another hallway.

After everyone was up Calvin looked around for any guards. When he turned his head to the right he saw a guard.

"Guys." he said pointing to the guard he saw.

Everyone turned and saw the same guard.

"In here." Jak said quickly opening a door near them.

Everyone went inside, with Tails closing the door as quickly and quietly as he could.

However, the guard saw them going in and went to investigate.

He went to the door and opened it. Only to be greeted by a vase to his head. Knocking him out.

Hobbes, who was the one holding the vase, dragged the unconscious body of the guard into the room they were in.

"That was close." Tails said as they exited the room.

Everyone nodded and continued through the hallway, avoiding the guards whenever possible. Soon they found another ladder and they climbed up it.

"I hope this one leads to the roof." Calvin remarked as they climbed up.

When they got up there, they yet found another hallway.

"How many floors does this building have?" Daxter asked.

Once again they made their way through the hallway and tried to avoid the guards. Though they did have to knock a few of them out before they found another ladder.

"Let me guess." Sherman said, who was in Calvin's pocket. "Another hallway."

Calvin peeked out and found a wide open space that overlooked the entire village.

"Nope." Calvin said smiling. "We finally made it to the roof."

Everyone then climbed up and looked around.

"How many guards do you see?" Hobbes asked.

"Five." Jak replied.

"Have they noticed us?"

"Not yet." Tails said.

Calvin smiled. "Then let's take them out."

Jak nodded and went over to one of them, who was peeking over a ledge, and pushed him off. The guard screamed as he fell to his death.

Another noticed this, but before he could act he was suddenly transformed into a crate thanks to Calvin's transmogrifyer gun.

Hobbes pounced another guard. While Tails used one of his two tails to trip a guard.

As for the 5th guard, Daxter leaped onto his head and covered his eyes. Blinding the guard long enough for Jak to punch him out.

When this was done, everyone looked around at the aftermath of the carnage they had just caused.

"Well, we took care of the guards of the roof." Daxter said breaking the silence. "Time to signal Sly."

Calvin nodded and got out the MTM. "MTM use the flare."

"You got it." The MTM replied. "Just aim me at the sky."

Calvin did so and a red light shot out of the MTM, illuminating the sky in a red glow.

* * *

From the building across from them, Sly saw the flare and smiled.

"Time to go to work." he said.

He pulled the hood to his head and leaped down, using his cane to hook a rope down below.

Using his free hand, he grabbed the rope and used the other to put the cane between his teeth.

He then climbed up the rope that lead to Apis's building and let go of the rope once he was near a balcony overseeing the village.

After appreciating the view, he entered the building and found himself in Apis's room. He looked around to see if the bull himself was there.

He wasn't there. Sly then began searching for a wooden chest. When he was spying on Alpis months ago, he saw him put the precursor star in a wooden chest with a painted blue top.

He searched the room, but couldn't find it.

"Must be in another room." Sly said to himself.

He then went to the door that led to the hallway, making a small crack and peeking through it to make sure there were no guards.

Once he was sure no one was there, he made his way through the hallway until he came across a door that had a crest that contained the symbol of a box.

Sly observed it before deciding to enter the room.

Inside was collection of chests, each one having a distinguishing feature that separated one from each other.

Sly searched the room, looking for the chest he was after. Eventually he came across a series of four chests that had similar blue tops.

Sly brought out a lockpick and began to work on the first one. After a minute he got it open and saw its contents.

It was a pile of curtains, ones that had unique patterns on them.

Sly went to the next one. When he finished picking the lock he found that chest #2 had scrolls of papyrus.

He unscrolled one, it was mainly a shipping list that categorized items.

He tossed it away and went to the third one.

When he opened it, he found that it contained the precursor star.

He quickly pocketed it and was ready to leave the room. When suddenly, a group of guards came and blocked the entrance.

"Well, Well, Well." A voice from behind him said.

Sly slowly turned and saw that Apis was behind him, crossing his arms with a smirk.

"After all these months, I finally caught you."

He then pulled Sly's hood off, revealing his face to him and the guards.

"And now I know you're the one known as Sly Cooper."

"Well." Sly said holding is arms up. "You finally caught me."

Apis grinned. "Yes I did."

"Let me ask you a question." Sly said. "What were you going to do to me right after you caught me?"

Apis suddenly stared at Sly in confusion. "What?"

Sly smirked "I mean, you've clearly been after me for months. Honestly, Who could blame you? I sabotaged your business, beat up a few of your minions, I even managed to infiltrate your fortress. So after all i've done, you must have had some sort revenge planned for me."

"Well." Apis said trying to think of something. "I planned on throwing you into my dungeon."

Sly, with a smile, raised his one of his eyebrows. "Really, That's the best you could think of? I honestly expected something like death. But maybe that's not your style."

Apis's eyes narrowed in anger. Enraged, he pointed to the guards in the door.

"GET HIM!"

The guards charged into the room.

Sly quickly dodged one of the guards and used the cane to hook his neck, pulling him towards another guard. Causing them to collide.

Sly turned around and whacked another guard who was coming from behind him. Noticing another charging towards him, he quickly jumped over and ran outside the room.

When he entered the hallway, he found that there were even more guards, surrounding him from both ends of the hallway.

"Farewell, Sly Cooper." Apis cried from the next room.

Sly held his cane tightly. He knew he wasn't going to be able to fight his way out of this, but he could make sure he knew he tried.

"Get Down." a voice suddenly called out from the left.

Sly looked in the direction the voice came and saw an electric orb going through the guards.

Sly, deciding to do what the voice said got on the ground and watched as the orb destroyed other group of guards.

He looked to his left and saw that the person who had saved him was Jak.

He was holding the morph gun, which was in peacemaker mode.

Apis then completely lost it. He roared in anger and charged towards Sly, who got out of the way in time. This resulted in one of Apis's remaining horn getting stuck.

"What are you doing here?" Sly asked Jak.

"We were getting out of the building when we noticed some guards coming your way." Jak explained. "So I thought I might help you out."

"Thanks for the assist." Sly said. "But I think I can handle Apis by myself."

"You sure?" Jak asked. "Because one wrong move and you could be flattened against the wall."

"People do predictable things when they're mad." Sly replied.

"If you say so." Jak said before running off.

By then, Apis had freed himself and had turned his attention back to Sly.

He roared again and charged towards Sly. Who once again dodged him.

As he once again tried to free himself, Sly ran past him towards the end of the hallway that led to the bedroom.

Once again, Apis freed himself, and looked for the racoon.

"Hey, stupid." Sly called out.

Apis turned, his eyes full of rage.

"I'm over here." Sly said as he stood there.

Apis charged again, and Sly moved out of the way just in time.

"He just never learns." Sly said shaking his head with a smile.

He then ran off to the bedroom.

Apis freed himself and began running in the direction Sly went.

He found him in the bedroom, standing there with his arms crossed and smiling.

You. Have caused me. A lot. Of Trouble." Apis said as he breathed heavily.

"In fact, I'm just going to kill you."

"Well I'm right here." Sly said, his arms open wide. "So do it already."

Apis prepared to charge at Sly, keeping his eye on him as he stood there.

Finally, he ran towards him.

Sly, at the last moment, jumped up and grabbed the chandelier with his cane and watched as Alpis charged off the balcony, screaming as he fell.

Sly landed on the floor, went over to the balcony and peeked over it. He saw Apis's body lying on the ground face first.

Satisfied, he walked away to rejoin the group.

Outside the group was waiting for Sly. When they saw him approaching them.

"Do you have the precursor star?" Daxter asked him.

Nodding, Sly got the star out and showed it to them.

Jak grabbed it and put it inside the MTM's hypercube.

"What about Apis?" Sherman asked. "Is he going to be a problem anymore?"

"Sherman, you can rest assured that he's been dealt with." Sly said petting him, much to Sherman irritation.

"Now then, Bentley and Murray have set up a location nearby." Calvin said. "We can get you there, you can go back to your time period and we can continue on our adventure."

"It was nice meeting you guys." Sly said smiling

"Yes." A voice said from behind them. "It was nice."

Everyone turned and saw that Apis was standing behind them.

His other horn had fallen off and he was grinning evilly at them.

"You know." Sly said trying to remain cool. "You look better without the horns Apis."

"Now." Apis said. "You managed to break into my home together, you shall die together as well."

Suddenly a dart hit Apis's neck. He pulled it out and observed it.

He suddenly felt drowsy and crashed onto the ground, falling asleep.

"No one's going to die today." A voice said from behind them.

Everyone turned and saw a turtle in a wheelchair, wearing a safari hat and holding a crossbow.

"Especially if he's one of my friends." Bentley said.

"Bentley?" Sly asked, happy to see his friend again.

Bentley nodded, smiling. "I'm happy to have finally found you Sly."

Just then, Murray came up and gave Sly a big hug.

"Sly!." He cried out in joy. "I never thought we'd ever see you again."

"Easy Murray." Sly managed to choke out. "You're hugging me a bit too tight."

"Oh, sorry." Murray said as dropped Sly.

"But how did you find us?" Tails asked. "You didn't know where we were."

"Oh I can answer that." The MTM said. "I secretly transmitted a message to Bentley, saying we found Sly and that we were helping him get a precursor star."

"I wish you told me you did that MTM." Calvin said. "But good job on doing that."

"Now then." Hobbes said. "If we're finished with our happy reunions, let's get back to the present."

With that our heroes walked off.

"Sly, I'm sorry it took us this long to find you." Bentley said. "Do you mind filling us in on what you've been doing."

"It's a long story Bentley." Sly responded. "Some of which you wouldn't believe."

* * *

A vortex opened on the streets of Paris before a van suddenly exited it and came to a screeching halt.

The vans doors then opened as the occupants came out. A raccoon, a pink hippo, a turtle in a wheelchair, A boy with spikey yellow hair, a tiger, a hamster, a two tailed fox, a person with long ears, and an otsel.

"I want to say thanks again for getting me back to my time." Sly said to the group as they walked out.

"No problem." Calvin said. "We're glad to have helped in any way we can."

"Um Bentley." Daxter asked pointing to the sky. "Is the sky usually this dark?"

Everyone then looked up at the sky, and saw that it was pitch black, without any stars.

"Oh no." Tails said.

"What is it?" Sly asked.

"Remember when we told you why we're collecting the precursor stars?"

"Yeah so."

"This is why."

They then heard a screech. Turning around, they saw an umbra coming at them.

Calvin's eye's widened. "MTM!"

"Yes." The MTM yawned.

"Teleport us to our friends!" Calvin yelled.

"Righto. Want me to take Sly, Bentley and Murray as well?"

Calvin shrugged. "Sure why not."

Tails turned to them. "Hey, Come over here!"

Sly, Bentley and Murray came to them. "What are you doing?" Murray asked.

"Saving you." Jak said as he shot an umbra that got too close to them.

"MTM, Initiate teleportation." Calvin said.

An sphere of electricity began to surround the group.

"You might want to brace yourselves." Hobbes said. "This could get a bit rough."

Just then Jak noticed the hooded figure they encountered at the Labyrinth Zone aiming a sphere of electricity at them.

Jak pointed the morph gun at him. "Not this time." he said.

He then fired at the figure, hitting him and causing the sphere of electricity he was channeling to disappear.

There was a flash and the group vanished. Teleported to, from what they know, parts unknown.


	14. Reunited Again

Chapter 14. Reunited Again.

Across a vast desert, Sonic, Amy, Ratchet, Clank, Andy and Socrates wandered. Walking towards their destination.

"Are we there yet?" Andy asked, clearly exhausted.

"Not yet." Ratchet said. "We still have about a few miles to go."

"Well while you're worrying about how much farther this is going to be. I'm worrying about what happened to the others." Socrates said.

"Look, they can probably handle themselves." Sonic said. "We shouldn't worry about them."

"Sorry Sonic, but Socrates has a point." Andy replied. "They should have teleported to us by now. Calvin has the MTM and could teleport to us anytime he wants."

"Well it could be because the MTM doesn't have enough power." Clank replied.

"Maybe." Amy said. "We should probably wait until we're at the dig site before we decide whether their dead or not."

The group continued in silence. After awhile they saw what we're clearly excavation tools in the distance.

"Okay we're near the dig site." Amy said. "And I don't see Calvin, Hobbes or anyone else around here."

"Maybe we should start considering the worst." Sonic said reluctantly. He didn't want to admit it but he had to start thinking of the possibility that maybe Tails and the others didn't make it.

"Oh, I really don't like doing that." Ratchet said shaking his head.

"Me either." Clank said.

"Hate to admit it." Andy said with a solemn expression on his face. "But maybe they died back in Sonic's universe."

"And it's not like they're just going to pop up from out of nowhere, all fine and dandy." Socrates said.

Everyone looked at him in silence.

"What? Usually when someone says that, something like that happens."

Just then a sphere of electricity began to form near them.

Everyone turned and saw it as it began to grow.

Just then the sphere let out a bright flash, causing them to shield their eyes.

When it was gone, they looked and their eyes widened.

Standing there was Calvin, Hobbes, Sherman, Jak, Daxter, Tails and three others they didn't recognize.

The group that teleported in then noticed the others.

"Sonic?" Tails asked.

"Calvin, Hobbes, Sherman?" Andy asked, looking at them closely. "Is that you?"

Each group stared at the other for a moment. Not knowing what to do or say.

They then rushed towards each other.

Andy grabbed Sherman. "Sherman, I was getting worried that something might have happened to you."

"Ah you were worrying too much." Sherman said. "I took care of myself just fine."

Meanwhile Tails was with Sonic, happy to see him safe.

"Tails, what took you and the others so long to get here?" Sonic asked.

"It's a long story." Tails said. "And one i'll tell you later."

Socrates was hugging Calvin and Hobbes tightly.

"Cally, Hobbo!" Socrates said with joy. "I never thought I would see you again."

"Socrates, I already saw one person nearly get crushed by a hug. I don't need to experience it myself." Calvin said as trying to breathe.

"I agree with Calvin." Hobbes said also struggling to breathe. "Loosen up the grip Socrates."

Jak and Daxter were with Ratchet and Clank, talking about what happened to them.

"So you landed in an unknown universe, went back in time to save someone's friend and took down a crime lord in the past." Clank said, summarizing the adventure.

"Yeah, that's pretty much it." Daxter said.

"Speaking of which." Ratchet said pointing to the raccoon, turtle, and hippo. "Who are these three."

"Oh." Calvin said as he got away from Socrates, remembering they haven't introduced their new friends to the others. "Well these three are Sly, Bentley and Murray."

Sonic approached Sly and offered his hand.

Sly looked at it for a moment. Then he grabbed it and the two shook hands.

"Well, we're all back together again." Daxter said. "How about you explain what happened while we we're gone and we'll tell you what happened to us."

* * *

In another universe, Tenebris stood, watching the ruins of the city below. Since the takeover black tendrils had wrapped themselves around the buildings that we're still standing. With the tallest having a giant lump glowing white.

Just then he heard footsteps, he turned and saw the black hooded figure approaching him.

"My master." he said bowing down to him. "I have an update on the heroes trying to stop you."

"What is it?" Tenebris asked.

"One group has managed to find a third precursor star, and have teleported to where the rest of them are. They also brought a few others with them as well."

"What do they look like?"

"Well one's a racoon, another is a turtle in a wheelchair and another's a pink hippo."

Tenebris's eyes narrowed. "I see."

"What do you want me to do master? The heroes are in Ratchet's universe, which we control."

Tenebris looked back in silence.

Finally, he spoke. "Do nothing. Where they are going has an army of my forces inside. They most likely won't survive."

"What happens if they do survive?"

"Oh, I have a backup in case that happens. Now leave."

The hooded figure nodded and ran off.'

Tenebris looked back at the city.

He knew the heroes were going to survive. They managed to escape him at every turn. But he knew eventually, they'll have to confront him. And when that time comes, he'll know how to lure them there.

* * *

Meanwhile, back in Ratchet's universe, The heroes had finished telling their stories to each other.

"Well it certainly sounds like you had more of an adventure then we had." Andy said after hearing Calvin's group's story.

"Compared to us, with the most exciting part being when we were nearly cornered by umbra." Socrates added.

"Well we have three of the five precursor stars now." Jak said. "I'll take it the reason you're all the way out here is because there's one nearby."

Sonic nodded. "We think it's here, but we're not exactly sure. This could be a random dig site for all we know."

"There's definitely a precursor star here." The MTM replied. "I managed to detect its signature."

"At least all that walking was worth it." Ratchet said.

"Now let's get that star." Calvin said.

With that, the newly reunited group ran towards the dig site.

When they arrived, they found that it was mostly abandoned. Made sense as most of the crew had probably gone back to camp before they got attacked.

However, Jak found a few people there, presumably staying to guard the area. He found their faces were contorted in the same way the librarian was back in his universe.

Hobbes walked up to Jak and saw the guard's face.

"Just like the librarian." Hobbes said.

Jak nodded. "You know, a thought occurred to me."

"What is it?"

"Why do some of the people we encounter look like this? I know it's probably because of the umbra, but why do they do this?"

Hobbes shrugged. "It's probably one of those things we'll never figure out."

"Hobbes, Jak." Sonic cried out. "Are you coming?"

Jak and Hobbes turned and saw the group going inside what looked like a mineshaft.

"We'll be there in a moment." Hobbes cried out.

Moving away from the body, Jak and Hobbes went to rejoin the others.

* * *

Inside, Calvin was leading the way with a flashlight. They had been walking for about 5 minutes before they came to an open area.

In front of them there were three hallways.

"So, Which one do we go through?" Sly asked.

"Well, maybe the middle one." Sonic said pointing to the one at the center.

"No, that's too 's probably the right one." Ratchet said pointing to the one on the right.

"That could lead to a dead end." Daxter said before pointing to the left one. "It's definitely the left."

"I think there's an easier way to find out." Sherman suggested. "Maybe we can go in groups of five."

The entire group stood in silence for a moment.

Then Clank spoke. "I guess that would be a good idea."

"ARE YOU CRAZY?" Daxter cried out. "We just reunited and now you want us to split us up again?"

"Relax Daxter." Hobbes said. "We're in the same universe this time, and if your path does lead to a dead end you can always walk back to here."

Daxter stared at him for a moment before he sighed. "Alright, we'll go with the 3 group plan."

And so they went. With Sly, Bentley, Murray, Ratchet and Clank going to the right, Andy Sherman Socrates, Jak and Daxter going to the middle, and finally, Sonic, Tails, Amy, Calvin and Hobbes going to the left.

* * *

In the left tunnel, Calvin was leading the way using his flashlight, again. With Sonic, Tails, Amy and Hobbes following him

"Calvin, this might be an obvious question. But why did you decide to bring those three with you when you teleported back to us?" Amy asked as they walked.

"Well it was a choice of leaving them to die in their universe, or taking them with me." Calvin replied. "It wasn't a hard one for me to make."

"You know, I think you made the right choice." Sonic said. "We probably need all the help we could get right now."

"Why?" Amy asked. "We've managed without them so far."

"I don't know. I just have a feeling we might need them."

Just then there was a squishing sound, and everyone stopped where they we're.

"Did someone step on something?" Calvin asked.

"Yeah I did." Sonic said.

"What is it?" Tails asked.

Calvin turned the flashlight towards Sonic, who had lifted his foot away from a black ooze like substance, some of which was dangling from his shoe.

"That looks like that same ooze the umbra make when they die." Hobbes said.

Everyone froze when Hobbes said that and another glob of ooze dropped not far from where they were.

Calvin, very slowly, lifted his flashlight towards the ceiling. The others slowly moving their heads in that direction as well.

On the ceiling, there were hundreds of umbra, hanging upside down and growling softly.

The group quickly took a look at their surroundings in increasing horror.

They we're in a cave, covered in a black substance that covered the area in web like patterns. There were even some areas with black tendras sticking out and moving around. At the center of the cave was a giant sac of ooze that was glowing white.

Amy was trying her hardest not to cry out in horror. Hobbes put his hand on her shoulder.

"Don't make a sound."

* * *

In the middle hall, Jak, Daxter, Andy, Sherman and Socrates were slowly making their way towards wherever the hall led.

"You know, Me and Socrates weren't there when you met those three." Andy said. "So Sherman, do you mind explaining to me why you would trust them after, if I recall, one of them tranquilized you and locked you and the others in a room."

"They needed help." Sherman answered. "And we did manage to convince them we meant no harm."

"Plus, Bentley fixed the MTM for us." Daxter added.

"Okay, but why didn't you teleport back to us as soon as that was done?" Andy asked, moving on to the next question.

"Well, it was more of Calvin's choice, but we decided to help Bentley and Murray find Sly." Jak explained. "We thought that once we were done with that, we would go find the precursor star."

"And instead you found it while looking for Sly." Socrates said.

Jak nodded.

Suddenly they came across a large pile of rocks blocking their path.

"Huh." Daxter said looking at it. "Look's like I was wrong about the right one being a dead end."

"What do we do now?" Andy asked.

Jak observed the blockage. "Can't use plasmite bombs as that might bring the whole cave down and considering most of us are down here, that probably wouldn't be a wise choice."

"And the rocks are too big to move them." Sherman added. "Which means…."

"We're going to have to go back the way we came." Andy finished.

Everyone sighed in disappointment, except for Daxter, who was sighing in relief.

* * *

Finally, Ratchet, Clank, Sly, Bentley and Murray we're making their way through the right hall.

Ratchet, who didn't really know the three newcomers well at the moment, was talking to them as they went.

"So, you are a thief who steals things, but only from other criminals." Ratchet said, summarizing what Sly had told him about himself.

"That's right." Sly said.

"And this is apparently a family tradition for thousands of years. Dating all the way back to when you're universe was in the ice age."

"I think that sums it up."

"Okay, I know you a bit better now."

Meanwhile Bentley was reading a book that Calvin had given to him about what they we're up against and how they we're going to defeat it.

"I have a bit of a question for you." Bentley said.

"What is it?" Clank asked.

"According to you and the book, you're looking for 5 precursor stars to defeat someone called the king of shadows and save your universes."

"Well that's what we've been doing." Ratchet replied.

"But when you do find all 5, what happens then?"

Ratchet stopped when he heard that question.

All this time it never occurred to either him and the others what would they do when they found the precursor stars. They didn't know what power they held, or even if they were powerful enough to stop Tenebris.

"Ummm." Ratchet said trying to figure out an answer. "We'll try to figure it out when we get to that."

"I'm sure you will." Bentley replied.

Soon they came across a small room that had some excavating equipment.

"Hope this is a sign we're near a precursor star." Clank said looking at it.

Ratchet scanned the walls, trying to find a sign of a precursor star.

He then saw a small gap in the wall. Looking closely he saw a precursor star, that was still embedded in the rock. But there were still some bits of rock stuck to it.

Undeterred, Ratchet ran to the excavating equipment and got a drill.

"What are you doing?" Murray asked noticing what Ratchet was doing.

"Found a precursor star." Ratchet replied as he activated it. "And i'm getting it out."

He then began drill around the precursor star.

Clank got a communicator out and dialed the MTM.

* * *

Back with the right hallway group, they had stood there for about a minute trying their best not to move.

"What do we do now?" Sonic whispered.

"I suggest we go back, moving very slowly." Calvin replied.

"We should probably go one at a time." Amy suggested

Very slowly they began to walk backward. Keeping a close eye on the umbra.

Calvin, who was in front of them, turned to Tails and nodded to him.

Tails then made his way to hallway leading back to the main area.

Sonic then went, moving as quickly and quietly as possible.

Amy then went, moving quickly as well.

Just as Hobbes was about to go, the MTM rang.

Calvin quickly stared at it in horror before turning his attention to the umbra on the ceiling.

They were beginning to wake up as they quickly turned their eyes onto Calvin.

"RUN!" He yelled.

He and Hobbes immediately took off. In their panic they ran into Sonic.

"Woah what's the rush there?" Sonic asked.

"Someone tried to call Calvin on the MTM." Hobbes said pointing to Calvin. "And now the umbra are after us."

"It wasn't my fault." Calvin said interjectedly.

Just then a few umbra came towards them. Calvin used the transmogifyer gun and managed to get two of them, but one lunged at them.

However just before they were about to be shredded to pieces, Amy came in with her hammer and knocked the umbra away.

Silently thanking her, they quickly ran away as more umbra came after them.

* * *

Back with Ratchet, he was almost done with clearing the remaining rock that was surrounding the precursor star.

Suddenly the drill stopped. To make things worse they heard a roar echoing from the cavern.

"That does not sound good." Bentley said.

"Indeed." Clank replied. "I can't seem to get Calvin on the line."

Meanwhile, after several failed attempts to get the drill started again, Ratchet got his wrench out and began to whack it at the precursor star.

While it seemed to be inefficient at first, the star began to get loose from it's stone prison with each strike.

Finally after one more strike, it broke loose and fell to the ground.

Ratchet picked it up and pocketed it.

"Time to go." he said turning to the others.

They nodded and they ran off.

* * *

Meanwhile, Jak, Daxter, Andy, Sherman and Socrates were back at the main room. Waiting for the others to come back.

Just then they heard shouting coming from left.

"MTM fire a laser at them!"

"Sonic, how much farther do we have?"

"I think we're close to where we started."

"You think? We're being swarmed by Umbra."

Just then Sonic, Calvin, Tails, Hobbes and Amy came running out of the left hallway.

Hobbes, Tails and Amy stopped to catch their breath while Calvin pointed the MTM and the Transmogifyer gun at the left hallway and Sonic stood, ready to fight whatever came.

"Let me guess." Daxter said to Hobbes. "Your hall didn't lead to the precursor star."

"Worse." Hobbes replied. "It led to a hive of umbra, and now they're after us."

Jak got out the morph gun and put it in Vulcan Fury mode, pointing it at the left hallway. "Any word from Ratchet?" he asked

"I think he or Clank called the MTM." Calvin replied. "But it just had to be at the most inopportune time."

Just then a group of umbra emerged from the hallway.

At once Calvin fired both the MTM and Transmogifyer gun at them. Jak fired the Vulcan Fury, and Sonic spindashed his way through them and back.

Despite this, the umbra were still coming and the ones they didn't hit absorbed the remains of the others and got more powerful.

Just then they heard footsteps coming in from the right. The ones that weren't holding off the umbra turned and saw Ratchet, Sly, Bentley and Murray emerge with Clank on Ratchet's back.

"We got the precursor star." Murray said.

"Then let's go." Hobbes said.

The three holding off the umbra noticed the others running towards the hall out and began to ran with them as they continued to hold them off.

"They're still going to chase us even if we get out of here." Sonic said as they ran.

"Don't worry, I have something that could hold them off." Calvin said. "MTM."

"Yes."

"Deploy protocol 156."

"Righto."

A small orange sphere dropped from the MTM and rolled down the mineshaft.

Just as the heroes made it out, the sphere exploded. Sending out a wave of fire that consumed almost the entire mine and let out a jet of flame near the entrance of the mine shaft, causing the heroes to shield themselves.

Inside the mine shaft, it made it's way to the hive, and it incinerated everything there.

Once it was over, everyone stared at the mineshaft and saw puddles of black goo lying there.

"Well." Sonic said. "We don't have to worry about them following us anymore."

"Look." Sly said pointing to the sky. "Something is happening to the sky."

Everyone looked and saw that the black sky was vanishing, allowing a nice blue sky to shine through.

"Interesting." Tails said. "That hive seemed to be what was causing the skies to turn black."

"Well it's just for one planet." Ratchet pointed out. "As well as the other universes."

"Look, we only have one more precursor star to find." Calvin said. "After that we'll find this Tenebris guy and defeat him."

Sonic nodded. "And from the process of elimination, I think I can guess where the last one will be." he said turning to hobbes

Hobbes stared at him for a moment before sighing. "Of course."

Calvin got out the MTM and was about to tell it to teleport to his universe before it spoke.

"Incoming Message, Incoming Message!"

Calvin frowned and glanced at the others. Everyone was here, so who would be calling them?

Uncertain, he turned back to the MTM and said. "MTM, answer it please."

"Very we…"

It didn't have a chance to finish it's sentence before it got consumed by static.

Sonic and Ratchet looked at each other nervously, they knew what was going to happen.

Just then a deep voice came out of the MTM.

"Is this the device known as the MTM i'm speaking in?"

Calvin looked at it uncertain of what to say.

He looked at the others, who had similar expressions of concern.

"Yes." he said in a small voice.

"Then this is Tenebris speaking, I have come to say congratulations on surviving the hive." Tenebris said through the speaker. "And for freeing one of the planets from my rule."

"You're right we survived." Daxter cried out. "We've managed to survive everything you've thrown at us."

"By running away." Tenebris replied. "I must say, not very impressive for you heroes."

"Enough of the small talk." Sonic said approaching the MTM. "Why are you calling us?"

"Oh it's simple. I have what you want."

Everyone froze when he said that.

"He doesn't mean…" Jak said, knowing full well what the answer was going to be.

"That's right." Tenebris said. "I have the last precursor star you're looking for."


	15. The Bargain

Chapter 15. The Bargain.

The heroes stood in silence. Shocked at the prospect that the villain they were trying to stop had the last object they need.

Sonic then spoke. "How did you find out about the precursor stars?"

"Oh, a little book the boy and his long eared friend dropped and someone from the outside." Tenebris replied.

Everyone looked at Calvin and Jak. Calvin responded with a shrug. "Must have missed one." he said.

"Who was the person who told you where the star was?" Hobbes asked, desperately wanting answers.

"Someone i'm not telling you as I have no idea who he is." Tenebris said. "Now allow me to tell you my demands."

"You want the precursor stars don't you?" Jak said crossing his arms. "Good luck with getting us to agree with that."

"That is correct, but I have something that will make you agree to that."

"And what's that, Holding friends and loved ones hostage?" Ratchet remarked.

"No, something a bit closer to home." Tenebris replied. "Have the boy activate the projector on the device known as the MTM."

Calvin did so, knowing he wasn't going to like what he saw.

Everyone gasped at what they saw.

Haven City, Calvins hometown, Veldin, Mobius, Metropolis and Paris were in ruin. With black tendrils wrapped around buildings. Visible in all of them were a giant lump that was glowing white.

"As you can see, I have control over all of your home universes."

"What did they do to them?" Sly asked in horror as he saw his universe.

"And what's the glowing lumps?" Hobbes said pointing to them. "Because we saw something similar in the hive."

"Oh, they're simply the source of power that allows me to hold the planets in your universe." Tenebris replied. "But they also serve a second purpose."

"That being?" Clank asked with growing dread.

"I can detonate them and wipe your homes off the map."

Everyone's eye's widened in horror.

"Y..Y..You're bluffing, Right?" Daxter stammered.

"Let me demonstrate to see if I am. Let's see, I think the city in the lombaxes universe will do."

Just then the lump in Metropolis began to glow even brighter.

Ratchet's eyes widened in terror. "NO!" he cried out.

Everyone panicked as the lump glowed even brighter, almost consuming the screen. Before suddenly returning back to normal.

"Don't worry, your city is safe for now. I just decided to detonate the source in another city I control. See for yourself."

Another screen came on, this one showing nothing but a smoldering crater, with only a few remains of the buildings.

"Why are you doing this?" Andy asked angrily. "What purpose does conquering the universes serve to you?"

"It gives me satisfaction." Tenebris replied coldly. "Now, I want you to come meet me and give the stars you have to me."

"No way." Sonic said. "We aren't giving you anything."

"Are you sure about that?" Tenebris asked. "Remember what happens when you don't agree."

Sonic stared at the home universes of his friends and then he turned to the others.

Everyone was staring at their homes, clearly afraid of what would happen to them.

Knowing he had no other choice, Sonic closed his eyes and turned back to the MTM.

"Where can we find you?" he asked in a quiet voice.

"I'm in the boy's universe." Tenebris said. "You can find my lair at the museum in the boys town. Remember to bring the precursor stars or you know what happens."

Sonic nodded weekly.

"Oh and one last thing. You all need to be there, including the raccoon, turtle and hippo. You also know what happens when that doesn't happen."

Everyone turned to Sly, Bentley and Murray. They looked a bit perplexed at how they were involved with this.

"Leave them out of this!" Tails said turning back to the MTM. "We just happened to take them with us."

"Then they're just as involved in this as you are." Tenebris replied. "You have 2 hours to arrive together, with the precursor stars. I'll be seeing you soon."

With that the call disconnected.

Everyone stood in silence for about a minute, thinking about what had just happened.

Finally, Hobbes spoke. "Sonic, what do we do now?"

Sonic sighed. "We give him the Precursor stars."

"What!?" Calvin exclaimed. "Please tell me that's not the only thing you plan on doing."

"That's the only thing I plan on doing." Sonic said turning to the others. "We don't have any other choice, you know what will happen if we don't agree to his terms."

"But there has to be something else..." Jak said.

"There is nothing else we can do!" Sonic snapped back. "He has control of probably hundreds of universes, including our own. Do you want to know why he's targeting us in particular? It's because we are searching for the only thing that can possibly stop him!"

"Look." Sly said speaking up. "I've had some situations where there didn't seem to be any easy way out except for the one offered, but I managed to pull through with some help."

"You do have point there Sly." Calvin said nodding his head. "I've been in some of those situations myself and I managed to find a way."

"I can think of one instance where you managed to get out of a situation like this." Andy said remembering something. "Like the time you managed to get me and the others out when we were being held hostage by Eggman."

"That was different." Sonic said. "There were only a few villains there and the minions he had could be easily taken out. We're talking about the fate of our homes here."

"We can't just let him claim victory!" Daxter pointed out.

"Maybe he already has." Tails said glumly, realizing the reality of their situation.

"Face it guys." Sonic said lowering his head. "We've lost."

Everyone stood, realizing that Sonic was possibly right.

It didn't seem fair to them. They had worked so hard to find these things and now they were being forced to give them up.

Suddenly, Ratchet spoke.

"Did you ever consider what would happen once we got all 5 of the precursor stars?"

Everyone turned to him, surprised at the question he had asked.

"What?" Hobbes asked.

"I agree with Hobbes." Amy said. "Could you please elaborate on that question Ratchet."

Ratchet nodded. "It occurred to me when Bentley asked me a similar question. All this time we've been searching for the stars, it never occurred to us what would happen once we found all five. Would it seal Tenebris up again so this whole thing could repeat again in a thousand years or so? or Would it actually destroy him? We really don't know."

He then pointed to Jak and Daxter. "Even you don't know what they do, and they come from your universe."

"What are you suggesting Ratchet?" Jak asked.

"I'm saying maybe we should ask the guy these things were meant to stop." Ratchet said crossing his arms.

"So you agree with Sonic over the fact we should just give Tenebris the precursor stars?" Sherman said.

"No! Just hear me out for a moment." Ratchet said putting his hands up. "All I'm saying is maybe we can just give him the stars temporarily. That way we can find out what these things do."

"Okay, and how are we even going to get the stars back once we give them to him?" Daxter said raising an eyebrow. "He's not just going to give them back to us once he explains what they do."

"Maybe one of us can not go to the meeting and steal them back once he has them." Ratchet said.

"ARE YOU INSANE!?" Socrates cried out. "Did you not hear the message? Tenebris wants us all there or our homes will be destroyed. He's going to notice one of us missing and then we won't have any home to go back to!"

"Socrates, every universe, not just our own, is at stake right now." Calvin said. "I think what Ratchet suggested might be our only other option right now."

"We need to make a plan." Clank said. "And we need to do it quickly since we're on a time limit."

Everyone stood there, trying to think of something.

Bentley then spoke up. "I think it's time I put my planning skills to use."

Everyone looked at him.

"You have one already?" Calvin asked, surprised.

Bentley nodded. "Come here so I can tell you what it is."

Everyone gathered around Bentley as he brought up a few things from the holographic computer on his wheelchair.

"Alright, here's what we do…"

* * *

An hour later, in Calvin's universe, a group of heroes approached the museum.

Looking at it for a moment, they saw that there were tendrils on the sides of the buildings, and at the back of it, was a large tower that seemed to overlook the ruined city.

Hobbes turned to Sonic. "You sure you want to do this?"

Sonic nodded. "If we want our homes to still be standing, we have to do this."

"If you insist." Ratchet said.

With that, the heroes entered the museum.

Inside, the place had been trashed. Whether by umbra or the panic the arrival caused they didn't know. Not only that but the floor was covered in the same black substance as the hive.

They looked at the map for the place. At the center of the map, right where the dinosaur section would be, there we're words burned onto it.

 _THE THRONE OF THE KING._

Calvin clenched his fist in anger. It was as if the placement of the throne was mocking him.

"Well, we found out where he is." Jak said looking at the map. "Let's go finally meet him in person."

Everyone then went in the direction the dinosaur exhibit would be.

As they made their way to through the Early Humans exhibit, Hobbes noticed something that made him stop.

"Guy's look." he said pointing to an exhibit.

Everyone stopped and saw what Hobbes was pointing at.

Instead of a primitive looking human, Calvin's parents were hovering in place. Their skin pale, heads low and their expressions blank.

"Oh my god." Andy said in hushed voice.

"What did they doing to them?" Socrates asked.

"MTM scan them, please." Calvin said, concerned for his parents.

A light shot out of the MTM, scanning the two.

Finally it spoke. "They're not dead." it said with what sounded like relief in it's voice.

"Then what happened to them?"

"It appears they're in some form of stasis. And I can't seem to find a way to wake them up if you're wondering how to do that."

"If that's what happened to your parents." Sonic said. "Then what about…"

"Don't ask that." Daxter said nervously. "I don't want to know the answer."

"Let's just keep moving." Bentley said.

Reluctantly, the heroes moved on.

Finally, they entered the dinosaur exhibit.

The place had been transformed. Where the dinosaur skeletons would be, there statues of a man and some hooded figures. Where the T-Rex should have been was a throne made of a black substance, with points at the top.

They heard a low growl and looked up on the ceiling. They saw hundreds of umbra, more then they've possibly ever seen, upside down.

"Don't worry. They won't attack unless I tell them too."

Everyone then looked at the throne.

Sitting on the throne, was a man with pale skin, no hair, and black eyes. The skin on him hugged his face tightly that the heroes almost thought it was a skull.

It didn't take long for them to figure out that the figure they were staring at was Tenebris.

"So." He said staring at the heroes. "We finally meet."

"Yeah, and only when we're about to lose." Calvin said. "Feel free to rub it in."

Tenebris, saying nothing rose from his throne and looked at the heroes.

"I see you're all here." he said looking at them one by one before he frowned. "But where is the raccoon?"

"He's dead." Murray said. "One of your minions attacked him on our way here and we were unable to save him in time."

"A shame." Tenebris replied. "But I think 14 out of 15 here is acceptable. Now, the precursor stars please."

"Before we do that." Tails said. "You're going to hold up your end of the bargain right? Our universes won't be destroyed?"

"A promise is a promise." Tenebris said. "Now, give them to me."

Sonic came forward with a bag that contained the precursor stars.

Before he gave it to him he stared at it for a moment. Inside, he was frustrated that they were about to lose all their hard work.

He then offered it to Tenebris. Who grabbed it with his long thin hands.

He checked the bag to make sure they were there.

He then looked at Sonic. "You made a wise choice here."

He then lifted his other hand, his palm open wide.

Suddenly the black substance that was on the floor covered Sonic's feet. Before Sonic had a chance to react, two tendrils shot out and covered his hands before quickly solidifying, trapping him.

Sonic turned around and saw that a similar thing was happening to the other heroes. It was the same for most of them with their arms and legs being bound, though for Sherman it went up to his head and for Bentley, the substance went between the spokes of the wheelchair and covered his hands and feet to prevent escape.

Jak looked at Tenebris with an an angry expression. "You monster, you tricked us!"

Tenebris shook his head. "No I didn't, I did as I promised. I have called of the destruction of your homes."

"Then what is this then!?" Hobbes stated, his head motioning to the bonds that trapped them.

"Just a simple precaution. Can't be too careful."

"You never meant to let us go." Amy said, trying futilely to escape the bonds . "This was just a trap to lure us here."

Once again Tenebris shook his head. "It wasn't a trap. I've seen the work you heroes have done, once again this is just a precaution."

The heroes stared at him. They were now prisoners to him, and he could do whatever he wanted to them.

"Come on Sly." Bentley whispered to himself. "We're all counting on you now."

* * *

Outside, Sly watched the museum from rooftop of the building across from it.

Instead of the brown cloak he had been wearing in Egypt and Ratchet's universe. He was wearing a blue sweatshirt with a yellow collar, as well as blue gloves and boots. He also wore a black mask over his eyes.

He then took out a blue cap and looked at it for a while.

It had been awhile since he'd worn this outfit. But wearing it, he felt like he was himself again. Not a mysterious robed figure that sabotaged a crime lord's operations, but Sly Cooper.

He put the cap on his head, stood up cane in hand and jumped off the roof.

He got out the paraglider and allowed it to take him to the roof of the museum.

Once he was just above the museum's roof, he let go, landing on top of the roof with his feet.

He then went over the skylight and peeked down. He saw what looked liked the skeleton of the giant prehistoric fish hanging above, remarkably intact for being in a universe that was taken over.

He jumped down to the skeleton, balancing himself on it, before jumping to the path upstairs.

He was in.

* * *

 **Authors Note:** _You might be thinking, wow i'm getting really consistent with releasing these chapters. The truth is, I've already gotten the 16th and 17th chapters ready, and as of this moment, i'm writing the 18th chapter. There won't be a bonus chapter for this story, but expect this story to be done before the end of the year._


	16. A King's Story

Chapter 16. A Kings Tale.

In the dinosaur exhibit, the rest of the heroes were still bound by Tenebris.

"You know, despite what you said, I still think this was a trap." Hobbes said as he struggled to get free. "You probably don't even have the precursor star with you. You probably don't know where it even is right now."

In response, Tenebris reached from inside his cloak and showed him a precursor star.

"Does this clear things up for you?" he asked.

"Okay, you weren't exactly lying when you said that." Calvin replied. "That doesn't explain why you even did this."

He motioned his head to the bonds that held them.

"So what are you going to do to us now?" Ratchet asked. "Kill us? Torture us?"

"Oh not those." Tenebris said shaking his head. "I think it's time you heard my story."

"Oh, your story." Daxter said rolling his eyes. "Look we read it before. You tried to take over universes, the precursors defeated you with the stars, end of story."

"That is where you are wrong." Tenebris replied. "Because what you read was just the simplified version of it."

"Quit the dramatics and tell us already." Andy said, annoyed.

"Fine." Tenebris said, his eyes narrowing at the heroes. "You are a impatient bunch you know."

"So what's this untold story?" Tails asked.

"Well, It was long ago when I first entered this universe." Tenebris began.

"Heard it before." Hobbes said.

"I haven't even started and you keep interrupting me." Tenebris growled with his eyes narrowed. "Interrupt me again and I will make what's holding you cover your mouths."

Hobbes fell silent.

"Now as I was saying." he said. "The story says they managed to defeat me early. But the truth is, I successfully conquered their universe."

Daxter's eyes widened. "What?"

* * *

At the same time, Sly was sneaking his way through the museum, avoiding the umbra whenever he came across them.

While waiting for one to go by, he thought of something.

"So, you dissolve into go when you're killed and when someone like you absorbs your remains, they become stronger." he said quietly to himself.

He looked at the cane, an idea forming in his head.

"But what if I knock you unconscious?"

He then leaped down and used the cane to hook a umbras neck, slamming it to the floor and then whacking it's head numerous times.

To his relief, the umbra didn't dissolve.

Sly smiled, his theory worked. Knowing someone was probably going to investigate it, he then continued making his way to where Tenebris and the others were.

* * *

Back with the other heroes, they were reacting in shock with Tenebris's revelation.

"I'll say what Daxter said." Socrates said. "WHAT!?"

"You seem surprised." Tenebris said. "You want me to go on?"

The heroes stared silently in shock.

"I'll take that as a yes." he said before continuing his story.

"I held the universe for a hundred years. Meanwhile the precursors hid, trying to find a way to stop me."

"They created the precursor stars in response to you." Sonic said. "So they must have found a way."

"Yes, but to seal me." Tenebris said. "Once they did, my grip on the other universes disappeared and all my minions vanished."

"And you and the umbra we're reduced to a simple myth." Calvin said.

"But now the bonds that held me are gone." Tenebris said clenching his hand in a fist. "I am free to take over any universe I please."

"Well you just told us how to stop you." Clank said. "You did say the precursor stars were meant to seal you up."

"Yes, but the precursors added another factor to them."

"That being?" Amy asked.

"They would seal me up only once." Tenebris answered. "The second time they were used, they would destroy me."

"Okay, so sealing you up was a warning shot." Murray said. "If you did it again, they would kill you."

"Yes, but there's a catch. Only a person who had found them and came from their universe could use their full power."

"And that would be." Jak asked before he realized that the rest of the heroes were staring at him.

He sighed, knowing what Tenebris ment. "Of course it's me."

"The precursors must have really liked you if you're the one who's often granted most of their responsibility with saving the world." Tails said.

"But that doesn't matter now." Tenebris said smiling evilly. "You're all trapped here, and there's noone who can save you."

"Oh, so we are prisoners." Calvin said, mocking surprise. "Thank's for clearing that up finally."

As that happened, Bentley noticed Sly upstairs. He was observing them through his binocucom, trying to look for a way to get the stars.

He noticed Bentley staring at him. Knowing he had no way of pointing without the use of his hands, he decided to do the next best thing and Mouthed what he knew, hoping he would understand.

He told him about where precursor stars were and where the fifth one was.

Sly seemed to understand and nodded before moving on, no doubt going to find a way to sneak in from behind.

Bentley nodded to the others, signaling to them that Sly was close.

"I just have a few questions." Hobbes said knowing he had to buy some time for Sly. "That librarian in Jak's universe and guards in Ratchet's universe, they had a expression of horror and their skin was pale. They must have something to do with you, so what happened to them?"

"Oh, the umbra simply absorbed their life." Tenebris replied. "I've been asleep for thousands of years, even someone like me gets hungry after that long."

"Then what's the deal with my parents?" Calvin asked. "It didn't you like you absorbed their life."

"Those are just food for when I need it later." Tenebris said.

"So you're taking people against their will so they can feed you later!?" Amy exclaimed. "You really are a monster, just like Jak said."

As that happened, Sly had managed to make his way down to where they were and was sneaking up on Tenebris

"So, we've heard you story, how the precursor stars work, and what you've been doing to our friends and loved ones." Murray said. "What are you going to do to us now?"

"Simple, I'm putting you in stasis to consume you latter."

"NO!" Sonic yelled. "You can't do this to us!"

Sly, knowing he had to work quickly, grabbed the bag containing the four precursor stars and began using his cane to pickpocket Tenebris for the fifth one.

As that happened, everyone was desperately trying to get free of their bonds. Jak for example, was trying to activate his dark powers.

"Don't worry." Tenebris said calmly. "You can be put there knowing you tried to futily defeat me. You will also be able to send a message to the survivors, knowing what will happen if they try to defeat me."

Sly, who after pulling out a few things, finally managed to get the precursor star from Tenebris and began to sneak away.

"Any last words before then?" He asked.

"You know it's a real shame you didn't meet Sly." Murray said smiling. "But I think you might have another chance to say hello to him."

Tenebris turned to him, confused at that question. "Why?"

"Because he's standing behind you, with the precursor stars."

Tenebris turned behind him, and his eyes were wide when he saw Sly.

Sly smiled, giving him a goodbye salute to him before running off.

At the same time, an explosion of dark energy went off near Jak, covering him in smoke.

Everyone turned to where he was, not sure of what happened to him.

When the smoke cleared, they saw that Jak was still there, but he had changed.

His skin and hair had turned white, his eyes were completely black and his hands had long, black claws coming from the fingertips.

Daxter, who knew what happened, smirked and turned to Tenebris, who looking at him in shock.

"Look's like you're in trouble now." he said to Tenebris.

Tenebris, trembling pointed to Jak.

"GET HIM!" He yelled.

A group of umbra suddenly dropped down from the ceiling and surrounded Jak.

In response, Jak snarled and charged at one of them. Slashing at it with his claws until it had dissolved into goo.

Before another had a chance to absorb it's remains, Jak attacked it and reduced it to goo as well before turning his attention to the other umbra behind him.

However, another umbra dropped down and absorbed the two's remains, causing it to grow bigger and gain spikes along its arms and back.

It lunged at Jak, who in response, threw an orb of Dark Eco at it. Causing the creature to get knocked to the floor and dissolve.

More Umbra dropped down, surrounding Jak.

He looked around at the Umbra and then looked at the floor.

He then jumped into the air, his fist raised and slammed it onto the ground.

This let out a shockwave, causing the umbra to fly off the ground, melting into goo at they did. It also caused the black substance on the ground to shatter, which in return, freed the other heroes.

Jak then reverted back to normal. Slightly wincing as he did.

Tenebris looked around at the newly freed heroes.

Sly then jumped down and joined the rest of the heroes. He then got his cane out and held it behind his back, ready to fight.

Ratchet tossed a spare blaster to Tails before getting his own blaster out and pointing it at Tenebris.

Daxter returned to Jak's shoulder while he got the morph gun out and pointed it to tenebris as well.

Amy got out her hammer and held it tightly, staring at Tenebris as she did so. Tails pointed the blaster Ratchet gave him and aimed it at Tenebris.

Calvin tossed the transmogifyer gun to Andy while he got out the MTM, both pointed them at Tenebris. Hobbes got his claws out and stared at Tenebris, his teeth bared at him. Socrates got two water balloons out, most likely containing a substance that wasn't water.

Bentley got his crossbow and aimed it at Tenebris. Murray got in a boxing like position.

Sonic looked around at them and smiled.

"What now?" he asked Tenebris.

Tenebris stared at the group in fury. His eyes faintly glowing red.

"You think, your weapons can stop me?" He asked under heavy breaths.

"Not really." Clank replied. "You said the precursor stars are the only things that can kill you."

"But with what we have." Ratchet replied, indicating to the weapons pointed at Tenebris. "I think we can probably hurt you a bit."

He then shot his blaster at him.

The rest of the heroes fired at Tenebris, with Amy throwing her hammer at him, Bentley firing explosive darts at him, Murray charging at him and punching him, Sonic using his speed to punch at him from all directions, Hobbes pouncing and slashing at him with his claws, Calvin and Andy firing lasers from the MTM and transmogifyer gun.

Tenebris's eyes went red as this happened.

"ENOUGH!" He roared.

He then brought his hands forward, knocking everyone back, with Bentley falling out of his wheelchair.

Everyone slowly got up, with Sly helping Bentley back in his wheelchair.

Tenebris slowly got up, clutching his shoulder and staring at them in fury.

"Do you really think you can stop me here?" Tenebris asked. "You might have found out how to stop me, but you don't know how to do it. Now, YOU WILL DIE HERE!"

A large army of Umbra dropped down and surrounded the group.

"Farewell, heroes." Tenebris said.

He then vanished in black smoke. Leaving them alone with the umbra.

"Guys." Sherman said. "What do we do?"

"Jak, can you do what you did to free us again?" Bentley asked.

"Can't." Jak said shaking his head. "Don't have enough Dark Eco."

He then switched his morph gun to another mode. "I do have something else I could use though."

He then aimed it above his head.

Daxter turned to the others. "You might want to cover your eyes."

Everyone shut their eyes as Jak fired the weapon.

It traveled in the air for a moment just before letting out a bright flash, which Jak shielded himself from.

When everyone opened their eyes, they saw most of the umbra surrounding them were black puddles.

They then saw the surviving umbra begin to absorb their remains.

"Time to go." Tails said.

The whole group agreed and ran off towards the exit. Before they could leave, they were suddenly blocked by several umbra.

They quickly ran back the way they came, dodging the swipes of the now large umbra.

"What do we do now?" Murray asked.

Calvin looked around and saw an Emergency Exit.

"This way." He said pointing in it's direction.

Everyone ran where Calvin was going, holding off the Umbra as they went.

Ratchet was firing the Warmonger at the much bigger ones, but they seemed to take the shots like they were nothing.

Sonic tore open the door when they got to it. "Everyone out, Go, Go!"

Everyone ran, with Jak and Ratchet doing their best to hold off any Umbra that came close.

Once everyone was through, Hobbes quickly slammed the door behind them.

"Now you're not allowed to do this when it comes to these things." he said to the others as he got something from the hypercube. "But it's just to make sure."

He put a rope around the door closer and made sure it was tied up tight.

"Now let's get out of here."

They ran away from the museum.

"Is there anywhere we can go?" Bentley asked as they ran. "Because we need to figure out what to do next."

Andy thought about something.

"I think so." he said. "Presumably if it didn't end up destroyed during all this chaos."

* * *

An hour later, they were at Andy's house, which was surprisingly intact despite the circumstances. Inside, due to the fact that there were about 10 more people other than Calvin, Hobbes, Andy, Sherman and Socrates, they were all crowded in the hall.

"I'm going to have to activate the backup generator before I let you enter the lab." Sherman explained as he was at the door. "When I do that, I'll open the door."

With that he entered the small door.

"We kind of had the backup generator on the back of our minds for a while." Andy explained. "But never got around to it until recently."

"What's the reasoning behind the idea?" Sly asked.

"Well, we there we're a few incidents regarding us losing power." he explained.

"What were they?"

"Well, a snowstorm, an electricity stealing robot and something that involved Sherman accidentally overloading the power supply in the neighborhood."

Just then the lights came on in the house, and a door slid open from the wall. Revealing a pair of stairs that led down.

"Well." Sonic said. "Let's go in.

Everyone went through the door, some ducking their heads because the door was low and Murray had to carry Bentley down due to the stairs being too narrow for a wheelchair to go through.

Downstairs, was a lab on one half, filled with beakers and test tubes. The other half was a library.

"Wow." Tails said looking around. "And the hamster built all this?"

"Yep." Calvin replied. "All by himself."

"Must've had a lot of time on his hands." Ratchet said.

"I will admit. This is an impressive set up you have." Bentley said to Sherman.

"Why, thank you." Sherman said smiling at him.

"Uh oh, Sherman making a friend." Hobbes said. "And he's not acting hostile towards him."

"Okay, I think we get it." Sonic said putting his hand up. "Can we get back to what we came here for."

Everyone gathered around a table as Sly put the bag containing the stars on it.

Sonic got them out, laying them down on the table.

"So Tenebris said the stars could give someone from Jak's universe the power to defeat him if sealing him didn't work, right." Ratchet said.

"Right and I'm probably that someone." Jak said crossing his arms.

"Don't you just hate it when you're often the chosen one?" Daxter remarked.

"But how do we activate them?" Clank asked.

"Maybe they're like the chaos emeralds." Amy suggested. "Try concentrating their power Jak."

Jak then closed his eyes and concentrated. Everyone watched the table, seeing if the stars would lift up.

Unfortunately, they didn't and all Jak was doing was trying to make a vein pop out of his forehead.

"Okay Jak you can stop now." Sonic said.

Jak stopped what he was doing and opened his eyes.

"So we're essentially stuck." Daxter said. "Tenebris is still out there and we don't even know how to use the objects that are supposed to stop him."

"Maybe we should read what's written on them." Calvin said pointing the the text written around it.

"You should probably use the MTM to translate them." Jak suggested to Calvin. "I'm not exactly the best at translating these things."

Calvin got out the MTM. "MTM."

"What do you need me for now?" It asked as it had just woken up.

"I need you to translate what's written on these stars."

"All 5 of them?"

Calvin nodded. "Yep."

"Very well then."

A blue light shot out of the MTM scanning the 5 stars.

"Translating…." The MTM said.

After about a few minutes, the MTM spoke. "Done."

"Well, what does it say?" Socrates asked.

"Oh it's just some thank you card." The MTM replied.

Calvin sighed in annoyance. "MTM this is serious, what does it actually say?"

"Well, the translation was rough, but it essentially says Go to a temple in the desert that resides on a hill and use the stars to unlock an area." The MTM explained.

"So essentially, the wasteland in our universe." Daxter said.

"So essentially, we go to Jak's universe, find the temple, use the precursor stars to unlock a hidden room, get Jak the power to destroy Tenebris, find and defeat him and our universes are saved." Sly said, guessing the steps of their plan.

"That's probably it." Ratchet said.

"Slight problem though." Murray pointed out. "We don't know where Tenebris is? He could be in another universe we don't know about for all we know."

"I've worked around that." Bentley said as he was going through the computer built into his wheelchair. "When we we're firing on him, I snuck a few tracking darts in there as well, we can track him, but I can't seem to find him in this universe at the moment."

"Let me help you." The MTM said. "Send the frequency of the darts to me and I can find out where he is in under a minute."

Bentley nodded and after some typing he sent the frequency to the MTM.

After about 30 seconds the MTM spoke. "He's in Jak's universe. More specifically, he's in the wasteland."

"So he's looking for the temple too." Tails said.

"Or waiting for us to arrive." Sly also suggested.

"Probably the latter." Sherman said.

Sonic sighed. "This isn't going to be easy. He's probably gathering a ton of umbra to combat us as we speak."

"We're gonna need all the firepower we can get if we want to get to that temple." Murray said.

"And what we currently have isn't going to do any good." Hobbes added.

"He's right." Jak said. "Most of the ammo I have for the morph gun is almost out, and I'm pretty sure most of Ratchet's weapons are out of ammo as well."

Ratchet then spoke. "I think I have something I could use."

"Like what?" Calvin asked.

Tails seemed to realize something. "You're referring to the Aphelion, aren't you?"

Ratchet nodded.

"But how are you going to use it?" Amy asked. "You essentially wrecked it when you crashed into our universe. Even you couldn't repair it."

"Well you're right." Clank said. "With the damage it sustained, it was impossible to make full repairs by ourselves, but I think we have someone who could repair it."

"Who?" Calvin asked.

Ratchet and Clank turned to Calvin. It was then Calvin realized what Clank ment.

"I managed to fix Tails plane with the MTM back when we first met." Calvin said with confidence. "I think I can repair your ship as well."

"Hey, what about stopping Tenebris?" Hobbes said. "That's a pretty high priority you know."

Calvin looked at the other heroes. He knew stopping Tenebris was important, more important than Ratchet's ship.

But Calvin knew they probably wouldn't survive, the weapons and equipment they had at the moment could barely defeat the umbra. They needed something better, and fast.

He then spoke. "Sonic, I'll go to your universe and help Ratchet fix his ship. I'm going to teleport the rest of you to Jak's universe."

"What are we going to do there?" Sonic asked.

"You're going to find the temple." Calvin replied.

"What about you and Ratchet?" Daxter asked.

"Once the aphelion is fixed, we'll be there." Ratchet reassured Daxter.

"See you soon." Calvin said to Hobbes.

Hobbes nodded.

He pointed the MTM at the heroes and pressed a button.

An electrical sphere surrounded them and with a flash, they were gone. Leaving Calvin, Ratchet and Clank alone.

He then pushed a few other buttons on the MTM, and the three teleported to Sonic's universe.


	17. The Power of The Stars

Chapter 17. The Power of The Stars.

In Sonic's universe, a couple of umbra moved around the wrecked remains of the aphelion.

It had remained almost untouched since Ratchet left it, though there was some paint that was beginning to peal off.

Suddenly, the umbra we're hit with blaster fire and lasers.

Calvin went over to the aphelion, while Ratchet got out the liquid nitrogen gun and freezed the puddles that the umbra left behind.

"Let's hope they can't absorb this." Ratchet said to Clank.

Clank nodded and Ratchet turned to Calvin.

"Wow." Calvin said observing the damage. "When Amy said you wrecked it when you landed in Sonic's universe, she was not kidding."

"Yeah that was because of the universe hyperdrive malfunctioning and exploding." Ratchet explained. "Can you fix it?"

Calvin turned to Ratchet and smiled, the MTM in his hand.

"I think I can do that."

* * *

Meanwhile in Jak's universe, The other heroes appeared outside the gates of Spargus.

"I'll be right back." Jak said. "Going to get a vehicle for us to drive to the temple."

"You do realize we have about 11 people here." Tails said pointing to the others. "Not just three when we were finding the chaos emerald that landed here."

"I think we'll manage." Jak replied, shrugging.

He then went through the gate.

"What's a chaos emerald?" Murray asked.

"It's something from our universe." Amy answered. "There are actually seven of them."

"Interesting." Sly said.

"You weren't planning on stealing them are you?" Sherman asked.

"No, I told you before,I only steal from other criminals and you guys aren't exactly criminals." Sly defended.

At that point, Jak came out in a vehicle that could probably hold all of them.

Everyone got in, with Sherman going into Andy's pocket and Daxter on Jak's shoulder. Bentley managed to get himself onto the vehicle thanks to the modifications he made to the wheelchair.

Jak then got out a map and pointed to a rock on the water that was on the edge of the map.

"I think the temple the precursor stars referred to might be here." Jak said to Hobbes, who was sitting in front with him.

"How do you know that?" Hobbes asked looking at the map.

"Me and Jak have been there a few times." Daxter explained. "It's where Jak got his light eco powers."

"I guess that makes sense." Sonic said shrugging.

"Now let's go." Jak said.

They then drove off in the direction of the temple. Jak turning the headlights on, because of the black skies.

"What do you think this power is?" Bentley asked as they rode to their destination.

"Don't really know." Tails said shrugging. "Could be anything really."

"Maybe it's some type of laser that destroys Tenebris." Andy suggested.

"Maybe it's some sort of object that only Jak could use." Amy said.

"Maybe it's a new power he could use." Sly suggested.

"Who knows." Sonic said shaking his head. "We'll have to see when we get there."

They continued to drive until they suddenly stopped.

Jak frowned and he tried to get the vehicle moving again. But no matter what he did, the vehicle wouldn't budge despite hearing wheels spin.

"We must be stuck on something." he said.

Hobbes looked down from the vehicle and saw that the rear left tire was stuck in a small sand pit and was struggling to move.

He turned to Murray. "Murray, I think we'll need your help."

* * *

Minutes later, Hobbes and Murray were beginning to push Jak's vehicle from behind in order to get it out of the sand pit. It wasn't easy as even though Murray was strong, he was still struggling to push the vehicle out, and Hobbes didn't exactly have Murray's strength.

"How much longer are we going to have to do this?" Hobbes said through gritted teeth.

"Maybe a few more minutes." Murray said.

Amy watched as Hobbes and Murray tried to push the car out of the pit, until she noticed something.

There were some umbra coming towards them. She turned to the other side and more umbra were coming from there as well.

"Guy's." she said pointing to the umbra that were quickly closing in on them. "We might have some trouble."

The heroes looked from to where Amy was pointing and their eyes widened.

"Hobbes, Murray, you might want to push a bit harder." Sly said.

Hobbes and Murray turned behind them and saw the umbra coming towards them. They then started to push at the vehicle harder.

"We're sitting ducks out here." Socrates cried out as the umbra began to surround them.

"Not quite." Jak said looking at the turret that was on the vehicle. "Daxter, try to hold them off."

Daxter quickly climbed up to the turret, turned it to the Umbra from behind the vehicle and fired.

Because of his small size, he was knocked back and the turret fired most of it's bullets into the air at first. Eventually he managed to find a way to keep steady and managed to take out the umbra that were closing in from behind the vehicle, and began to turn the weapon to the other umbra surrounding it.

Meanwhile, Murray and Hobbes were beginning to make some progress on getting the vehicle out as it was halfway out.

Just as they were about to get out, Hobbes turned and noticed the hooded figure that had been stalking them throughout the adventure.

The hooded figure then lifted his hands and it began to absorb the umbras remains.

Hobbes saw him growing larger, being consumed with the dark substance. By the time he was done he was almost gigantic.

The monster looked down at them and let out a big roar.

It was at this moment Murray got the tire out of the sand.

Immediately, Hobbes and Murray jumped onto the vehicle.

"DRIVE!" Hobbes yelled at Jak.

Jak turned and noticed the giant umbra and immediately hit the gas.

Everyone turned to see what they were driving away from and saw the giant umbra.

"Oh god, it's huge." Socrates said.

They drove off as fast as they could. But despite it's size, the giant umbra managed to keep up with them.

Daxter tried to fire upon the creature using the turret, but it was no use. The monster just kept coming.

Soon they came across a series of rocks on the water that, despite some gaps between the rocks, formed a bridge across to, from what Jak knew, a temple.

"Hold on." Jak said.

Just as they were about to jump to the rocks, they we're stopped by the giant's foot, who had cut them off.

Jak swerved as he steered the vehicle away from the giant. Unfortunately, he turned near the edge of a cliff.

Jak just managed to stop it before the vehicle over it. Saving everyone onboard, but now they we're cornered by the giant.

"I guess this is it." Bentley said staring at the umbra.

Everyone nervously nodded in terror. They were effectively cornered. The only way to escape was over the cliff, but considering some of the passengers couldn't swim, that was not an option.

The giant raised its fist at them and everyone braced for the end.

Suddenly, a group of missiles hit the giant, causing it to stagger back.

Everyone looked to the sky, wondering who saved them.

They saw a ship flying towards them, now firing lasers at the giant to give it no chance of attacking them on the ground.

As it went by for another run, they saw a lombax, a small robot, and a six year old boy inside the cockpit.

The giant was distracted by the ship, so Jak took the chance and drove off towards the rocks.

* * *

On the aphelion, Ratchet and Calvin watched as the vehicle with the others drove to the temple. They had gotten a look at it before Calvin saw the giant umbra chasing Jak's vehicle and Ratchet went to save them.

They turned back to the giant umbra.

"What do you say we make sure this thing doesn't harm anyone else?" Calvin asked.

Ratchet nodded. "Let's."

Ratchet then flew towards the giant and launched another volley of missiles at it. Most of them hit it and in retaliation, the giant rose it's hand and attempted to swat the ship out of the sky.

Ratchet, not interested in having the aphelion crash again, dodged it and fired a stream of lasers in it's face.

Ratchet turned to Clank. Clank nodded and pushed a few buttons.

In response, the aphelion fired two missiles at the giant Umbra. They hit their target, embedding themselves into the giant, but not exploding.

After about a few seconds they let out a huge explosion, causing the umbra to fall to the ground and start melting into a puddle of goo.

They watched as the giant collapsed. While most of the goo it made was still on land, a fair share of it fell into the water.

Deciding that was good enough, they flew to the temple to rejoin their friends.

* * *

At the temple entrance, Jak and the other heroes exited the vehicle and approached the temple.

"So this is where the power to defeat Tenebris is." Sly said staring at it.

"Kind of fitting." Jak replied. "The place where I got my light powers just happened to be the location of something that can stop an evil being from taking over our universes."

Just then the aphelion landed and Ratchet, Clank, and Calvin got out and rejoined the heroes.

"Thanks for saving us Ratchet." Sonic said. "Thought we were done for there."

"No problem." Ratchet replied.

"But how did you even get here without blowing yourselves up" Amy asked. "Remember, you crashed because of the malfunctioning hyperdrive."

"Oh that wasn't a problem." Clank answered. "Calvin not only managed to fix our ship, but managed to stabilize the hyperdrive for now."

"Once this is all over, you might want to help me make sure it stays that way." Ratchet said to Tails.

Tails nodded.

"Now then." Sonic said turning back to the temple. "Shall we end Tenebris's reign?"

Everyone went inside the temple, ready to end this.

Jak led them down into a circular area. He and Daxter had been through this area many times when Jak was gaining his light eco powers.

The heroes searched the walls, looking for somewhere they could put the precursor stars.

Finally, they found a large rectangle area that had sections carved in where the precursor stars could be held.

Hobbes turned to Sonic and nodded.

Sonic got out the precursor stars and began to place them in the appropriate areas with the help of the other heroes.

After a while, they managed to put the stars into the correct areas.

Next to them, a section of wall moved away, revealing a passageway that led down.

"Well." Calvin said. "If anyone wants to leave, nows the time."

No one left, not even Daxter.

With that, the heroes descended into the passageway.

After some time, they emerged into a giant room, lined with pillars. There were white-blue gems hanging off of them, giving off a light that illuminated the room. At the end of the room, there was a stone idol that had yellow eyes sitting on a pedestal.

Everyone looked around the room, wondering if that was it.

"Is that it?" Hobbes asked, baffled.

"I honestly expected something here." Socrates said. "Like a weapon or something."

"Maybe that idol has something to do with how we defeat it." Daxter said pointing to the idol.

Just then they head a series of low growls. They turned around and saw Tenebris and behind him, a swarm of Umbra waiting to attack them.

"Well, Well, Well." he said. "It looks like you found what can stop me."

"You're right we did." Calvin cried out. "And now we're going to use it to stop you."

"And what happens if it doesn't work? Are you going to run away like you did before?"

"No." Ratchet replied getting out his wrench. "We're going to stand and fight."

Tenebris expression turned into a frown.

He turned to the umbra. "Kill them."

He then vanished in black smoke, leaving the heroes alone with the umbra.

Sly tuned to Jak. "We'll hold them off. You just get to the idol, it might be our only chance."

Jak nodded and with Daxter on his shoulder. He ran towards the idol.

Meanwhile the rest of the heroes began to fight the umbra.

Ratchet, who had restocked on ammo on the aphelion, used a flamethrower to burn the Umbra, causing them to melt into the black puddles and drive back any Umbra that wanted to absorb it's remains.

Sonic used his speed to plow through various umbra, as well as punches and kicks to take out the umbra. Tails used the blaster Ratchet gave him to blast any that came close. Amy used her hammer to take out any umbra.

Calvin used the MTM to fire a laser that cut the umbra down. Andy used the transmogifyer gun to turn any Umbra into harmless things. Socrates combined both the time pauser and the atomic freezer to freeze any umbra and vanish before Hobbes pounced on them, causing them to shatter into blocks of ice.

Sly used his cane to fight of the umbra, sometimes hitting one with the other thanks to hooking them with the cane. Murray simply punched the umbra away using his strength. Bentley used a combination explosive bolts and bombs to defeat the umbra.

However some managed to slip by and began chase Jak and Daxter.

Daxter turned and noticed a few umbra running after them.

"Uh Jak." he said. "We've got a few umbra after us."

Jak turned as he ran and got the morph gun in blaster mode and fired on a few of them, managed to take out a two of them.

Just as he was about to fire on the last one, all he got was a click, signaling he was out of ammo.

The umbra lunged at them, but Jak quickly used the gun to whack it away.

He continued running to the idol and eventually was close enough to observe it.

"So now what?" Daxter asked looking at the idol.

"I guess i'll touch it and see what happens." Jak said shrugging.

"You sure about that?"

"Have any better ideas?"

Daxter thought about it for a moment.

"I think touching it is a good idea." he finally said.

Jak nodded and placed his hand on the idol.

Immediately, he felt some sort of power surge through him.

He began to hover a few inches off the ground and there was a bright flash of light.

When it was gone, Jak had a blue glow covering him with glowing white eyes. On his back were wings that were made of light.

Daxter looked at Jak for a moment.

"So it turns you into your light form?" He asked in disbelief. "I Think the precursors screwed up somewhere along the way."

However, the umbra Jak whacked with his gun wasn't dead and had absorbed its breatherens remains and was lunging towards the two.

Without thinking, Jak put his hand palm forward.

To both him and Daxter's surprise, a blue white beam shot out of it, hitting the umbra and causing it to disintegrate. Not melting it into a pile of goo, but disintegrating it until there was nothing left.

Jak stared at his hand, surprised at what he just did.

"So this how we stop Tenebris and his minions." Daxter said, also staring at Jak's hand

The two then stared at the heroes holding the remaining umbra off. They were slowly beginning to become overwhelmed by the sheer numbers.

Daxter turned to Jak. "Time to show them your new power."

Jak nodded and flew towards the heroes using his wings.

* * *

Back with the other heroes, things were not looking good.

Sonic ended up getting tripped by umbra and we're now surrounding him. Tails had run out of ammo for the blaster. Amy was quickly being surrounded by umbra.

Ratchet was almost out of ammo for most of his weapons and was now using his wrench to hold the umbra off. Clank tried to help but it wasn't much.

Calvin and Andy had the MTM and Transmogifyer gun knocked out of their hands and had nothing to back them up. The time pauser had run out of battery for Socrates and Hobbes was being held down by Umbra.

Sly was cornered and had a cane in the mouth of an umbra to prevent it from biting him. Murray was dogpiled by umbra and Bentley was knocked off his wheelchair, leaving him with his crossbow that was rapidly running out of ammo.

All seemed lost to them until a beam of blue white light came down and disintegrated the umbra.

Everyone stopped and looked up to see who had saved them.

Jak was in his light form, hovering above them with a hand held out like he fired something from it.

He then raised his other hand and used both of them to fire a the blue-white beams.

The umbra didn't stand a chance. All of them died the moment the blue-white beams hit them, leaving nothing behind.

Eventually, there were no umbra left and Jak landed on the floor, turning back into his normal form.

Everyone stared at him, amazed at what he just did.

Finally Sherman spoke. "I guess that's the power to stop the umbra."

"Okay, we got the power, now let's find Tenebris and end this." Ratchet said.

"But where is he right now?" Tails asked.

"You won't have to look far." A voice said.

The heroes turned and saw Tenebris, looking around at the recent battle that had taken place.

"So, this is the power the precursor stars led to." he said.

"You're right it is." Hobbes said. "And now we have it and we're going to destroy you."

Hobbes then turned to Jak. "Jak, can you turn into your light form and use your lasers to end this guy?" he said quickly.

Jak tried to turn into his light form but it didn't work.

"Don't think I have enough light eco in me to do that right now." he said.

They turned to face Tenebris, who was smiling.

"Oh what a shame." He said. "He used his power to save his friends, but not defeat me."

"You think that's bad for you!" Amy cried out. "Jak will get enough Light eco to turn into his light form and end you."

"You really think that?" Tenebris replied. "Do you really think you'll escape me before you do that?"

Everyone stared at Tenebris with determined expressions. But inside, they knew he had a point. He was to powerful to defeat and Jak's new light power was the only thing that could defeat him.

If they we're going to defeat him, they needed to defeat him now.

Jak looked around, looking for something that could quickly recharge the light eco inside.

He then saw a eco vent that was blocked by a crystal that had fallen on top of it, but he could see that it was emitting small traces of light eco.

He looked up and saw a piece of rubble hanging from the top of a pillar that looked like large enough to shatter the crystal on top of the eco vent.

He turned to Ratchet. "Keep him distracted."

"Why?" Ratchet asked confused. "What are you doing?"

"Getting some light eco." Jak replied as he ran off.

"Look who's running away." Tenebris said watching Jak run. "He'll be the first to die out of all of you."

He raised his and was about to fire a dark blast of energy at Jak when suddenly, a laser hit his hand, causing it to fire harmlessly into the air.

He turned and saw that Calvin had fired a shot of the transmogifyer gun at him.

"Insult him, or any of my friends again." He said in anger. "And you're finished."

"And are you going to defeat me all by yourself?" Tenebris asked.

Just then Hobbes stepped up next to Calvin. "No, you're going to have to fight me too."

Sonic went to Calvin as well. "As well as me."

Ratchet came forward as well. "You're going to have to go through me as well."

Sly then came in front of them. "I might not know these people well, but if it's to save the world from you, then you might as well have to fight me too."

All the other heroes gathered in front of Tenebris, staring at him with determined expressions and ready to fight.

Tenebris stared at them. "So be it, you'll all die together."

"If we have to do that." Sonic said. "Then we'll die knowing we tried to stop you."


	18. Kings Fall

**Author's Note:** _Merry Christmas to you all. I hope you're enjoying your christmas with your family, as well as your gifts. So here's my present for you, the final chapter to this story. Enjoy._

* * *

Chapter 18. Kings Fall.

Jak and Daxter began their ascent to the pillar with the rubble.

Using another pillar that had toppled down at some point, they got to higher ground. Jak, with Daxter on his shoulder, then jumped and grabbed a ledge that had formed on another pillar.

He then began to climb, grabbing any ledge he saw to ascend to the pillar.

When he got to the top of that pillar, both he and Daxter saw they still had a ways to go until they could reach the pillar they were aiming for.

Undeterred, Jak noticed a series of poles hanging horizontally leading to another pillar that led to another pillar high enough to get to the one with the rubble. He then jumped and grabbed the nearest one and used the others to get to the pillar.

Once he and Daxter was there, saw that despite the pillar they were on being closer to the pillar with the rubble, it was still going to take quite a jump to get there.

Both deciding to take the chance, Jak ran and took a great leap towards the pillar.

He just barely made it, grabbing the ledge of the pillar with one hand while using the other to grab Daxter as he had fallen of his shoulder when he grabbed the ledge.

He helped Daxter up to the top of the pillar before climbing up himself.

The two stared at the piece of rubble they we're going to use to shatter the crystal on top of the light eco vent.

"So, any plans on getting that piece of rubble off the pillar and onto the crystal?" Daxter asked.

Jak thought about it for a moment. With what they had now, there was only one way to do it.

"We're going to have to push it." he answered.

"But that thing must weigh a ton, you can't exactly push it off quickly."

"Did I recall saying "I'm going to have to push it." it to you?"

Daxter then realized what he meant.

"Come on, Let's push this thing off."

* * *

Around the time that was going on, the rest of the heroes we're beginning to fight Tenebris for the last time.

Calvin, Ratchet, Andy, Bentley and Tails were using the MTM, a blaster, the transmogifyer gun, a crossbow with explosive bolts and another blaster respectively to fire at Tenebris.

Tenebris was shielding himself from the firepower with one hand. Using the other hand to charge a blast to attack the heroes.

Once it was charged he flung it at the five, who attempted to get out of the way quickly. However they weren't quick enough and they got knocked out, with Bentley falling out of his wheelchair.

After that, Tenebris was suddenly hit with water balloons and covered in glue.

He turned around and saw Socrates, who was holding two more water balloons. Presumably also containing glue.

"Do you really think that would harm me?" Tenebris asked in a mix of anger and annoyance.

"No." Socrates said shaking his head while smiling. "That was just to distract you."

"From what?"

"From him."

Tenebris turned and saw Murray charging towards him before punching him in the face.

Staggered, Tenebris attempted to blast him away, but Murray punched him again. He continued doing so, not giving Tenebris a chance to attack.

Murray was able to keep him busy for about half a minute before Tenebris caught his first just as he was about to punch again.

He then knocked Murray to the floor using a energy blast.

Murray struggled to get up and saw Tenebris approaching him. A long, thin, black spike emerging from his left arm from beneath the robes.

"I will say, that was impressive of you." Tenebris said as he got closer to Murray.

He then drew the arm containing the spike back, about to impale Murray. "But it wasn't enough."

Just as he was about to kill Murray, a gold cane hooked onto the arm with the spike and caused it to stab the ground harmlessly inches from Murray.

Tenebris turned and saw the person who had intervened was Sly.

"Get away from my friend." He said.

Tenebris's eyes narrowed and he swung the spike towards Sly.

Sly dodged it and swung his cane back at him, causing Tenebris to block it with the spike.

This went on, the two swinging their weapons at each other, blocking and dodging them as it happened.

Sly managed to get a few hits on Tenebris. But then Tenebris swung at him again with the spike.

Sly narrowly avoided getting sliced. The shirt he was wearing however, wasn't so lucky as it got a cut near the middle.

"Oh come on." Sly said looking at the damage on his shirt. "I just got this back."

In that moment of distraction, Tenebris knocked the cane from Sly's hand and grabbed him by the throat and lifted him up.

He drew the spike back, ready to kill Sly, when Hobbes intervened by pouncing on Tenebris.

Tenebris instantly grabbed Hobbes and tossed him aside, hitting Socrates in the process.

"Now then." Tenebris said. "All that's left is that hedgehog and his frie…"

He didn't finish the sentence before he was suddenly punched.

He looked around, looking for the person who hit him, but found no one.

He was then hit by another punch, and then another one.

It was then he realized what was happening. The blue hedgehog was using his speed to hit him quickly.

He got the black spike out and looked around, trying to track the hedgehog.

He felt someone approaching him from behind and he swung from there.

From Sonic's perspective, Tenebris was swinging the spike just above his neck. Not intending to lose his head in more ways than one, he slid under the spike. He then kicked Tenebris from behind, knocking him to the ground.

As he got up, Tenebris noticed Sonic going in for another punch. He reached his hand forward and when Sonic was close enough, he grabbed him by the throat.

"You might be fast." Tenebris said to the struggling hedgehog. "But you become so predictable at times."

* * *

At the same time, Jak and Daxter were still pushing the piece of rubble over the edge. Right now it was getting close to falling over.

"Come on Daxter, push harder." Jak said through gritted teeth as he pushed it.

"You try pushing something this heavy when you're this size." Daxter replied. "Then you'll know how I feel when i'm doing it."

Jak rolled his eyes and continued to push the rubble.

Suddenly, the piece of rubble toppled off the edge. Jak and Daxter watched from the edge as it fell down towards the crystal blocking the light eco vent.

The piece of rubble shattered the rubble, as well as the crystal. This left the light eco vent still blocked because some rubble was covering half of it, but now it was emitting a fair amount of light eco.

"Eh that's good enough." Daxter said shrugging.

Jak then grabbed Daxter and leapt down to the ground.

* * *

Back with Sonic, he was still struggling to break free from Tenebris's grip. No matter how hard he hit him.

"It was a shame hedgehog." Tenebris said as he watched the hedgehog struggle. "You we're so close in defeating me, but instead your friend wasted it on defeating my minions."

Sonic wanted to tell Tenebris to shut up, but because he was choking him, all he got out was a few coughs and sputters.

"What was that?" Tenebris asked mockingly. "You wanted to say something."

"You'll...never….win." Sonic managed to get out.

"Still defiant, even when you're about to die." Tenebris said. "You really should just give up now."

He brought his left arm back and the black spike came out, inching closer to Sonic.

"This won't hurt a bit, I promise."

Just then Amy jumped from behind Tenebris and hit him in the head with her hammer, causing him to drop Sonic, who began to catch his breath.

"LEAVE HIM ALONE!" Amy yelled staring at Tenebris.

Tenebris stared at Amy, who was clutching her hammer fearlessly.

"So, you're the only one left standing." Tenebris said. "You saw me defeat your friends one by one. What makes you think you will be any different?"

"I probably won't defeat you." Amy replied. "But as long as I'm defending Sonic and his friends, I can at least go down knowing I did that."

She then charged and swung her hammer at Tenebris, who dodged it.

She swung it again and it hit him, however he had no reaction.

Amy hit Tenebris with the hammer over and over again but Tenebris didn't seem to react to the strikes.

When Amy tried to swing again, he caught it with his hand and stared at her.

"I think that's enough right now." he said.

He then knocked Amy away.

He focused his attention on the heroes he had fought, who were either struggling to get up or standing weekly.

"I hope you see now, you can't defeat me without the precursors power." Tenebris said as he watched them. "You are now mine to consume."

He raised his hand at the heroes. "Relax, you won't feel a thing."

"Hey! Did you forget about us?"

Tenebris stopped and turned around. He saw Jak standing there, staring at him with a determined expression, as well as Daxter on his shoulder.

"Ah, I forgot about you." Tenebris said. "Have you come to see your friends die?"

"No." Jak replied. "I've come to finish you."

"Oh, and how are you going to do that?" Tenebris asked. "You still probably don't have…"

"SHUT UP ALREADY!" Daxter yelled at Tenebris before turning to Jak.

"End this guy already." he said to him.

Jak nodded and went into his light form.

Daxter turned to Tenebris, smirking.

"Want to see what Jak's new power can do to you?" he asked.

Tenebres was confused by that question. "What?"

Jak then began to shoot a beam of blue-white light from one hand. Tenebris fired a beam of dark grey light with his own hand.

The beams met and immediately, the blue-light beam began pushing back against the grey beam.

When the blue-light beam hit Tenebris, he began to feel a burning sensation, almost as if the beam was beginning to dissolve him.

Deciding that wasn't good enough, Jak fired another beam light from his other hand and began to bring the two beams close together.

While that was going on, Tenebris was struggling to get away from the beams.

Ratchet, seeing this, slowly got up and got the RYNO V and aimed it at Tenebris. He fired the weapon, letting loose a barrage of fire and rockets at him.

Tenebris, noticing this tried to block this, but he was clearly struggling with being overwhelmed by energy and blocking a powerful weapon at the same time.

Calvin, who had been lying on the floor unconscious, woke up and saw Tenebris struggling against the two.

Noticing the MTM near him, he quickly picked it up.

"MTM fire a laser at it." He said.

"Would you like it single blast or continuous beam?" The MTM asked.

"Continuous beam." Calvin answered. "And make it full power."

"Righto."

The MTM fired a laser beam at Tenebris, hitting him in the back.

Seeing only one way out, Tenebris struggled to make his way to the right, which was the only area he wasn't being fired at.

Bentley, seeing this, wasn't about to let that happen and quickly loaded an electric bolt in his crossbow and tossed it to Sly as his glasses were damaged when he was knocked out from the blast.

Sly understood what to do and fired it at Tenebris. The bolt hit him, causing Tenebris to be immobilized in place.

At the same time, the beams of light that Jak was firing finally came together as one giant beam large enough to consume Tenebris.

Jak put a bit more power into the beams and soon none of the heroes couldn't see what was going on with Tenebris.

Eventually, Jak stopped firing the beams. The heroes saw that Tenebris was now a statue, frozen in fear as he died.

"Not taking any chances." Sonic said.

He ran towards the statue and smashed through it using his speed.

Everyone watched at the remaining statue pieces melted into the same black goo they saw the umbra melt into before disappearing.

Jak then collapsed to the ground in exhaustion, turning back to normal in the process.

"Is it over?" Andy asked, staring at where Tenebris once was.

"I think it is." Ratchet replied. "But there's only one way to find out."

Everyone walked outside to check the sky. Sly was about to join them when he noticed that Jak still was on the ground in exhaustion and trying to get up. Sly couldn't exactly blame him, what he did to Tenebris must have been exhausting to him.

Sly went over to him and Jak looked up to see Sly, in front of him and offering his hand.

Jak grabbed it and Sly helped him up. The two then went to rejoine the others outside.

* * *

Everyone walked out of the temple and saw that instead of the black skies, sunlight was shining through.

Sonic turned to Calvin. "Hey Calvin, can you check out the rest of our universes and see if they're alright."

Calvin nodded and pressed a few buttons on the MTM and the heroes looked at the other universes.

The cities were still ruined obviously, but the black tendrils had vanished and black skies were gone.

"Well, it looks like Tenebris's reign is over for good." Hobbes said looking at the cities.

"But still." Jak said looking at the damage done to the cities. "It's going to take a while to rebuild our homes."

"Yeah, and who knows where else this whole event happened." Ratchet replied.

"Don't worry." Calvin said. "With the power of my time pauser and the MTM, I think we can have your homes back up within a few days."

Tails smiled. "Thanks Calvin."

"No problem he said."

"If I may." Sly said stepping up. "I think I have one more thing to share."

"What is it Sly?" Socrates asked.

"During my infiltration of Tenebris's lair, I came across his throne room and found these."

Sly pulled out a few folders and handed them to the heroes. "I think you might find these interesting."

Everyone looked at them, growing surprised over it's contents.

"These contain info about us." Amy said in surprise as she looked at the files.

"Might explain part of the reason why he restrained us back at the museum." Clank said. "If he knew what we we're capable of, he might prepare precautions."

"Have any idea who sent these Sly?" Calvin asked going through his own file.

"I think so." Sly replied. "All I got was someone called, The Chessmaster."

"The Chessmaster?" Tails asked.

"Yeah, not only that, but I also found a note saying he helped release Tenebris." Sly continued.

"Hey Tails, Amy, look at this." Sonic said going over his file.

Tails and Amy came over to Sonic, who pointed at a specific line at his file.

 _Capable of defeating entities like, Perfect Chaos, Dark Gaia, Time Eater and Universe Eater (Last one defeated with the help of heroes from Jak's, Ratchets, and Calvin's universes.)_

It didn't take long for any of them to figure out the connection.

"So this Chessmaster person was responsible for the events that happened last time." Amy said.

"He's most likely the one who recruited the villains and told them about the universe eater." Calvin said.

"That and he might've played a hand in Tenebris's awakening." Jak said.

"You know, once most of my home is rebuilt, I think me and Clank are going to find this chessmaster." Ratchet said.

"Alright then. What are we waiting for?" Murray asked. "Let's begin cleaning up and rebuilding our homes."

* * *

It took the heroes a week to repair the damage the umbra did in their universes. They had a lot of work to do such as repairing the buildings, fixing the exhibits in the museum in Calvin's universe, and cleaning up various buildings. It would have taken longer if it wasn't for the MTM

Once they were satisfied with the work they've done, they once again went their separate ways and returned to their own universes.

Somewhere in a ship in space however, a man with a dark trench coat and hat was watching the various heroes doing their own things.

Calvin and Hobbes were reading comics on Calvin's bed while Andy and Sherman were working on a experiment in Sherman's lab, and Socrates in his room was planning his next prank.

Jak cleaning a room up as Daxter slept.

Ratchet was working on the aphelion with Clank assisting him. They were both preparing to go find the Chessmaster.

Sly was sitting down with Bentley and Murray as they talked him through what had happened since he was gone.

Sonic was running away from Amy again while Tails

"So, you managed to beat him and make a new ally in the process." The Chessmaster said watching the heroes. "I think these tests have been quite beneficial."

He then went into another room, containing a table and various chairs.

There were a few people sitting in the room.

A grey alien with a crescent moon shaped head, a cyborg with only part of his human face remaining, and a robotic doctor sat there. They turned their heads as they saw The Chessmaster enter.

"Gentlemen." He said to them. "It appeared the heroes have succeeded once again. I now know what they are capable of."

"You didn't know what they we're capable of the last time?" Dr. Nefarious asked as he straightened his head

The three villains had just recently been found by the Chessmaster after months of surviving in an escape pod. Nefarious had only recently had his head reattached to his body. Pretty easily considering he was a robot. But it wasn't perfect, so at times his head would unwillingly tilt.

"That was just to see how they would react to you working together. This was just to see how well they would react to an threat unknown to them." The Chessmaster explained.

"So what's next?" Erol asked. "We've been stuck here for months, when can we get revenge on the heroes?"

"I am currently planning the next plan." The Chessmaster said. "While i'm at it, the heroes have made a few new allies during all this. In response, I would like to introduce a new member to our group."

He stepped aside and someone else entered the room.

It was a pink mouse with blonde hair, wearing a red bandanna on her head, glasses and a yellow suit.

"Who is this?" Earl asked.

"This is Penelope." The Chessmaster said indicating to the mouse. "I'll leave you to get to know her."

The Chessmaster then left the room, leaving the three alone with their new arrival.

THE END.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** _And that's the end for this story. Again, i'm sorry for the huge gaps between most chapters, life got in the way._

 _Now, good news is Universe Collision 3 is now in development. Going to be writing this one a bit differently. See when I wrote the first two Universe Collision's, I would write the chapters individually. As you saw this resulted in a bit of delays. For 3, I'm going to start by writing an outline of the story, sort of an Synopsis of it, and then writing down the chapters. I'm currently writing the outline at the time of this posting and aiming to release the third entry at around mid-2018. So keep an eye out for it._

 _Until then, See you in the next Universe._


End file.
